IS A REDUCTION IN STRESS THE CAUSE OF ATTENTIONAL IMPROVEMENT? THE EFFECTS OF ROSEMARY ESSENTIAL OIL ON MISMATCH NEGATIVITY
-
1
Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Australia
Research indicates that cholinergic agonists, such as nicotine, may be beneficial in improving cognitive attention. However, it is not known whether this effect is a direct one, or if it is mediated by a reduction in stress, which drugs such as nicotine produce. Rosemary essential oil is also a cholinergic agonist, and there is some evidence of it improving cognitive processing.
Aim: The present study was designed to examine whether there was a direct effect of rosemary on attention, or whether such an effect depended on the level of stress occurring at the time of testing. The Mismatch Negativity (MMN) procedure was employed as a measure of attention, as it reflects the brains ability to respond to a deviant stimulus within a sequence of homogenous stimuli.
Method: Twenty-four healthy volunteers (mean age = 25, 75% female) completed both a stressful (N-back) and non-stressful task in a cubicle with either the presence of a rosemary odour (n = 12) or a placebo (peppermint) odour (n = 12). During both tasks, electrocortical activity towards an auditory MMN paradigm was recorded.
Results: Stress had an effect by reducing MMN amplitudes measured at FZ on the scale, in the placebo condition. Stress also appeared to dramatically increase the amount of variability in the event-related potentials. Contrary to expectations, the rosemary odour did not reverse these effects of stress, but this was because rosemary appeared to alter the event-related potentials of both the standard and deviant stimuli in the MMN paradigm.
Conclusion: Overall, stress was found to impair cognitive attention, however we do not have evidence that the rosemary odour reduced stress or improved attention. Activity at other sites of FZ will be further explored to explain these effects of rosemary.
Keywords:
Attention,
stress,
mismatch negativity,
Rosemary essential oil,
Attentional Improvement
Conference:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, Australia, 5 Oct - 6 Oct, 2017.
Presentation Type:
Research
Topic:
Psychology
Citation:
Saleeb
E and
Provost
SC
(2017). IS A REDUCTION IN STRESS THE CAUSE OF ATTENTIONAL IMPROVEMENT? THE EFFECTS OF ROSEMARY ESSENTIAL OIL ON MISMATCH NEGATIVITY.
Front. Psychol.
Conference Abstract:
Southern Cross University 14th Annual Honours Psychology Research Conference.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fpsyg.2017.72.00029
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
25 Sep 2017;
Published Online:
11 Dec 2017.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Stephen C Provost, Southern Cross University, Psychology, School of Health and Human Sciences, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia, steve.provost@scu.edu.au