The Effects of Stress and Cognitive Load on Frontal P3 Amplitude

Abstract

Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, often leading to deficits in cognitive functioning, such as impaired control over attention. These effects are detectable on the neural level through the reduction of the frontal P3 event-related potential amplitude. Two major contributors to this clinical condition are exposure to high levels of stress and continuous elevated cognitive demands. In the present study, we examined whether non-clinical everyday stress has a similar effect on the frontal P3 amplitude, and whether cognitive load has a lingering effect on attentional functioning after task completion. Furthermore, we tested whether stress moderates the reduction in frontal P3 amplitude after exposure to cognitive load. EEG data were recorded from 31 participants in combination with a novelty oddball paradigm. Cognitive load was induced with a novel approach, playing pinball, a multisensory game. At the end of the experiment, participants filled out questionnaires aimed to measure their stress levels. Results showed a trend-level relationship between stress and frontal P3 amplitude, with higher stress predicting lower baseline frontal P3 amplitude, however, the regression was not statistically significant. Cognitive load had a residual effect on frontal P3, causing significant amplitude reduction after gameplay. Lastly, a moderating role by stress was observed, with higher levels of stress leading to a significantly smaller reduction in frontal P3 amplitude – inversely to what was expected. These findings align with previous studies. The non-significant but trend-level relationship between stress and frontal P3 amplitude could present stress as a “weaker”, not yet formed version of burnout. The effect of cognitive load on frontal P3 amplitude is well established, however, this is one of the first studies where a significant change is observed after the end of the cognitively loading task. The reverse moderating effect of stress is an interesting finding that deserves to be further investigated.