NSF Award
2222174
The ability to sustain attention is impaired by chronic stress. Chronic stress also results in inflammation in the immune system. Thus, chronic stress is likely to impact multiple bodily systems, from psychological to biological, in ways that are only partially understood. This research project uses theoretical insights from cognitive psychology to shed light on the precise relationships among chronic stress, cognition, and inflammation among individuals who experience a variety of day-to-day stressors. It further analyzes whether and how mindfulness mediates the relationships between stress and inflammation and between stress and attention. It trains students at a minority-serving institution, disseminates results broadly to academic and non-academic audiences, and provides insights that are relevant to clinical health interventions. <br/><br/>This project collects measures of stress, cognition, and inflammation during multiple time periods, including a baseline, low-stress period and one associated with an ecologically valid chronic stressor to investigate the following hypotheses: 1) the impact of chronic stress on measures of executive attention and inflammation is mediated by rates of negatively valenced, off-task thoughts; 2) higher rates of mindfulness and baseline measures of executive attention predict reduced negatively valenced mind wandering during stress, reducing the effects of stress on executive attention and inflammation; and 3) individual differences at baseline will predict rates of mindfulness and mind wandering, affecting the degree to which these mediate relationships between stress and inflammation. The findings from this study provide a missing link between the impact of chronic stress on cognitive functioning and inflammation and identify factors that can be used in interventions seeking to limit the negative impacts of chronic stress on health and well-being.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
