Job Stress and Frontal Activity During Verbal Fluency Test: A Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study

Background and objectives:

Recently the news of intern doctors' death due to overloaded work or committing suicide has made the authorities concerned put emphasis on the mental health care of medical staffs and related policies of psychological interventions. The prefrontal lobe plays an important role in the working memory, executive function and problem-solving abilities of the brain. Currently, no neuroimaging studies investigating the impact of job stress on the prefrontal love functions in intern doctors. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measures the cortical functions of the frontotemporal regions and has been widely used as a biomarker to aid in differential diagnoses in major psychiatric illnesses in Japan. The present study will investigate impact of the job stress on brain cortical activity during a verbal fluency test (VFT) by using fNIRS.

Materials and methods:

A total of 100 participants will be recruited. Clinical measurements of mood status by Beck's Depression Inventory and Beck's Anxiety Inventory, as well as job stress by Chinese Version of the Job Content Questionnaire and the Chinese version of Copenhagen Burnout Inventory will be arranged. The relationship between clinical measurements and cortical activity during a VFT will be analyzed by Pearson's correlation. Multiple regression analysis will be applied to investigate the independent contributions of mood status and job stress.

Expected results and contributions of the study:

Job stress, depression, and anxiety are significantly negatively correlated with cortical activity of prefrontal regions. The importance of mental health of medical staffs under high job stress should be stressed.