The current study evaluates how the accumulation of sociodemographic risk (CSR) may impact executive function (EF). This work focuses on accumulation of risk given the established and supported theories of conceptualizing stress’s impacts on physiology and function via allostatic load. Allostatic load is defined as the cost of adapting to stressors and environmental demands, and frames stress as cumulative and systemic. The current work focuses on females given sex differences in stress susceptibility, the documented differential rates of mood and affective disorders in females compared to males, and the historic lack of representation of female subjects in neuroscience research. Daily symptoms of stress and anxious arousal (DS) are considered as mediators of CSR’s expected effects on EF. Progesterone is evaluated as a moderator of the relationships between CSR, DS, and EF. Hypotheses include high CSR predicting reduced EF, high CSR predicting high DS, high DS predicting reduced EF, DS mediating the effects of CSR on EF, and progesterone moderating all the direct relationships between CSR, DS, and EF such that the relationships strengthen at high progesterone.151 natural cycling female participants enrolled for 35 days intended to encompass one menstrual cycle. They completed demographics and psychological interviews, provided daily saliva and affective symptoms, and attended cognitive assessments at four lab visits across the 35 days. Cumulative risk was characterized via a composite CSR score from self-reported race, childhood socioeconomic status, and trauma data. Lab visits included an N-back working memory task with concurrent EEG, from which the P300 Event Related Potential (ERP) and behavioral data was obtained and used to index EF. Evaluating the direct relationships between CSR, DS, and EF was done using multilevel modeling (MLM). DS were tested as potential mediators using Monte Carlo simulations to test for indirect effects. Progesterone levels obtained from daily saliva samples were tested for moderating effects on the relationships between CSR, DS, and EF using MLM. Results showed high CSR significantly reduced measures of EF, but showed no effects of CSR on DS. DS predicted a subset of EF measures in opposite directions: daily stress increased reaction time (RT) at low and high working memory (WM) load, and anxious arousal symptoms predicted decreased RT at medium WM load. DS did not mediate the effects of CSR on EF. Progesterone did not moderate any of the relationships between CSR, DS, and EF. Instead it had its own small main effects on EF and anxious arousal when included as a covariate predictor. Findings suggest CSR is a better predictor of EF than DS, that daily measures may be insufficient to mediate the effects of adapting to CSR on EF, and that daily self-reported stress, anxious arousal, and salivary progesterone are interrelated in their impacts on EF.
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