5. Conclusion
The present findings indicate that acute stress may impair creativity
via concomitant HPA and SAM activation that modulates cognitive
flexibility. This was demonstrated by the enhanced level of cortisol,
dopamine and norepinephrine as well as the decrease in cognitive
flexibility under stress. Following these results, we conclude that
stress-induced arousal may restrict flexible switching and divergent
thinking, mediated by distinct neurocognitive mechanisms. To our
knowledge, the current research is the first attempt to uncover the
potential cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying
creative processing under acute stress. Future research would benefit
from integrating multimodal cross-cutting techniques to form a
multi-level model of stress-influenced creativity at the
“biochemical-cognitive-behavioral-brain” level and to construct a
systematic and comprehensive explanatory framework.