Negative outlooks of our future may foster unwanted and intrusive thoughts. To some extent, individuals have control over their ability to suppress intrusions and downregulate their frequency. Acute stress impairs intentional suppression, leading to an increased frequency of intrusions. The aim of this study was to gain insight into the mechanism underlying stress-induced impairments in intentional suppression of intrusions by investigating the combined and independent roles of the two major stress hormones, noradrenaline and cortisol. Healthy participants (N = 181) were administered propranolol (to block the noradrenergic response), metyrapone (to block the cortisol response), or a placebo before being exposed to the Maastricht Acute Stress Test. Intrusive thoughts of autobiographical future fears were then measured via the Imagine/No-Imagine task. Results demonstrated that the stress response was successfully altered because of the drug and stress manipulations. In all groups, repeated suppression of future fears reduced intrusions. Across the sample, an enhanced decrease over time was associated with greater attenuation of anxiety towards the related fears. The groups did not differ in the total frequency of intrusions. Though, trait anxiety increased the total number of intrusions. Our findings show that stress hormones did not influence the ability to suppress intrusions. However, our results do add support to previous research linking anxiety to memory control deficits. When using autobiographical content, future research should focus on the quality and characteristics of the individual memories to explain more of the variation observed in intentional memory control.

对未来的消极看法可能会滋生不必要的侵入性想法。在某种程度上，个人可以控制自己抑制入侵和下调入侵频率的能力。急性压力会损害故意抑制，导致入侵频率增加。本研究的目的是通过研究去甲肾上腺素和皮质醇这两种主要应激激素的联合和独立作用，深入了解故意抑制入侵时压力引起的损伤的机制。健康参与者（N  = 181）在接受马斯特里赫特急性压力测试之前服用普萘洛尔（以阻断去甲肾上腺素能反应）、美替拉酮（以阻断皮质醇反应）或安慰剂。然后通过想象/不想象任务来测量自传式未来恐惧的侵入性想法。结果表明，由于药物和压力操纵，压力反应被成功改变。在所有群体中，反复抑制未来的恐惧会减少入侵。在整个样本中，随着时间的推移，增强的减少与对相关恐惧的焦虑的更大程度的减弱有关。各组的入侵总频率没有差异。然而，特质焦虑增加了入侵的总数。我们的研究结果表明，应激激素不会影响抑制入侵的能力。然而，我们的结果确实为之前将焦虑与记忆控制缺陷联系起来的研究提供了支持。当使用自传内容时，未来的研究应该集中在个体记忆的质量和特征上，以解释更多在有意记忆控制中观察到的变化。