Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Psychosis is a common medical condition, affecting 3% of the population, particularly in individuals with a history of early life stress (ELS; i.e., sexual and physical abuse, and physical and emotional neglect). Neurocognitive deficits (NC; i.e., attention and executive functioning) have been identified as a robust feature of psychotic disorders (PD) and are demonstrated to be impaired under stress in healthy individuals and those with PD. The present study will be the first to stratify performance on NC processes under acute stress in individuals with psychotic disorders with and without ELS. This study will test the hypothesize that individuals with a PD and ELS will perform poorer on an NC task testing flexibility of attention and executive functioning after administration of acute stress in comparison to individuals with PD only and healthy controls. A mixed model with repeated measures test will be used to identify group differences in NC performance at baseline and post acute stress. Furthermore, sex, gender and current medication will be controlled in all analysis. Stress is unavoidable but manageable given the right tools. Given that cognitive impairments are associated with poorer outcomes in daily, occupational and social domains, this study will help guide interventions that remediate NC functions in individuals with a PD and history of trauma and equip individuals with the capacity and tools to deal with stress in a health and effective manner.