title: High cortisol awakening response is associated with impaired error monitoring and decreased post-error adjustment.
abstract: The cortisol awakening response (CAR), a rapid increase in cortisol levels following morning awakening, is an important aspect of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity. Alterations in the CAR have been linked to a variety of mental disorders and cognitive function. However, little is known regarding the relationship between the CAR and error processing, a phenomenon that is vital for cognitive control and behavioral adaptation. Using high-temporal resolution measures of event-related potentials (ERPs) combined with behavioral assessment of error processing, we investigated whether and how the CAR is associated with two key components of error processing: error detection and subsequent behavioral adjustment. Sixty university students performed a Go/No-go task while their ERPs were recorded. Saliva samples were collected at 0, 15, 30 and 60 min after awakening on the two consecutive days following ERP data collection. The results showed that a higher CAR was associated with slowed latency of the error-related negativity (ERN) and a higher post-error miss rate. The CAR was not associated with other behavioral measures such as the false alarm rate and the post-correct miss rate. These findings suggest that high CAR is a biological factor linked to impairments of multiple steps of error processing in healthy populations, specifically, the automatic detection of error and post-error behavioral adjustment. A common underlying neural mechanism of physiological and cognitive control may be crucial for engaging in both CAR and error processing.
authors.affiliation: a Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: a Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .|b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Hongxia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: c State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China .|d Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing Normal University , Beijing , People's Republic of China , and.
authors.forename: Shaozheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: a Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .|b University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Yiran
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: e Department of Psychology , Saint Louis University , St. Louis, MO , USA.
authors.forename: Tony W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.affiliation: a Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Kan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: a Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China .
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014851:Wakefulness; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Cortisol awakening response; Go/No-go task; error processing; error-related negativity; event-related potentials; post-error behavior