Why the study?
Does elevated emotional arousal affect cognitive test performance in cardiac patients before and after open-heart surgery?
Does elevated emotional arousal affect cognitive test performance in cardiac patients before and after open-heart surgery?
Elevated emotional arousal before and after open-heart surgery does not significantly impact cognitive test performance, supporting the validity of neuropsychological testing in acute clinical settings.
Emotional arousal unlikely to bias cognitive testing in cardiac surgery patients; leaves open generalizability beyond this cohort.
Impending surgery provides a natural stress paradigm within which the effect of stress on cognitive functioning can be assessed. Cardiac patients scheduled for open-heart surgery were tested for cognitive and emotional status on the day before (N = 130) and 7 days after surgery (N = 109). We correlated the self-reported anxiety and depression scores with the performance on 11 neuropsychological tests on both pre-and postoperative examinations. The results indicate that the significantly elevated emotional arousal in these patients has no relevant effect on their cognitive performance. This finding underlines the validity of neuropsychological testing in more acute clinical settings.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Vingerhoets et al. (1995) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched one closely related paper. Consider it for comparative context: