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Quadratic associations between cardiovascular stress reactivity and development of cool and hot executive functions in adolescents

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Wei Lü Open the ORCID record for Wei Lü [Opens in a new window]  and
Yefei Huang
Wei Lü*
Affiliation:
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shaanxi Key Research Center for Children Mental and Behavior Health, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
Yefei Huang
Affiliation:
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Behavior and Cognitive Neuroscience, Shaanxi Key Research Center for Children Mental and Behavior Health, School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
*
Corresponding author: Wei Lü; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Stress affects executive functions and exploring the association between stress-induced physiological reactivity and executive functions could highlight the potential mechanism of the stress-cognitive function link. Our study examined the linear and nonlinear associations between cardiovascular stress reactivity and cool and hot executive functions among adolescents. In November 2021 (T1), 273 Chinese adolescents between 11 and 14 (Mage = 12.93, SDage = 0.79) underwent a speech task during which their cardiovascular data were recorded, and they completed a Flanker task and an Emotional Stroop task. In May 2023 (T2), 253 adolescents again completed the Flanker and Emotional Stroop tasks. Cool and hot executive functions were assessed using the intra-individual reaction time variability of the Flanker task and Emotional Stroop task, respectively. Results showed that cardiovascular stress reactivity was positively linearly associated with cool executive functions at T1 and quadratically (inverted U-shaped) associated with cool executive functions at T1 and hot executive functions at T1 and T2. These findings suggest that compared to very high and very low cardiovascular reactivity, moderate to high cardiovascular reactivity to a structured social challenge is associated with better cool and hot executive functions.

Keywords

Adolescentscardiovascular stress reactivitycool executive functionshot executive functions
Type
Regular Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , May 2025 , pp. 664 - 677
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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