showing 26 related works from this author
Hair cortisol and cognitive performance in healthy older people
2013
Summary Worse cognitive performance in older people has been associated with hypothalamic—pituitary—adrenal axis dysregulation (in particular, higher cortisol levels). Analysis of hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) is a novel method to measure long-term cortisol exposure, and its relationship with cognition in healthy older people has not yet been studied. We investigated whether HCC (measured in hair scalp) and diurnal salivary cortisol levels (awakening, 30 min after awakening, and evening, across two days) were related to cognitive performance (assessed with the Trail-making Test A and B, Digit Span Forward and Backward, word list-RAVLT and Stories subtest of the Rivermead) in 57 healthy…
2D:4D in Men Is Related to Aggressive Dominance but Not to Sociable Dominance
2012
It has been shown that a smaller ratio between the length of the second and fourth digit (2D:4D) is an indicator of the exposure to prenatal testosterone (T). This study measured the 2D:4D of men and assessed dominance as a personality trait to investigate indirectly if the exposure to prenatal T is related to a dominant personality later in life. Results showed that men had a more aggressive dominant personality when having a more masculine (lower) 2D:4D, while there was no relationship between sociable dominance and 2D:4D. Findings from this study indicate that it is important to distinguish different forms of dominance since other studies failed to find relationships between dominance an…
Verbal performance during stress in healthy older people
2018
The impact of stress on the dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) response in older population is understudied. This study investigated, in healthy older people, whether the DHEA and cortisol responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was related to performance on this task. Both speech (rated by committee and self-rated) and arithmetic (number of mistakes) performance were assessed. Sixty-five participants (55–77 years old) were exposed to the TSST. Increases in negative affect, state anxiety, and cortisol levels could be observed, but there were no significant changes in positive affect or DHEA levels. Interestingly, a larger DHEA response was related to better verbal performance after cont…
Renal and nonrenal clearances of ceftriaxone at the steady-state and its relation to plasma protein binding
1995
Abstract The effect of the saturable plasma protein binding of ceftriaxone on the elimination of this drug was studied under steady-state conditions in the rat. A concentration-dependent increase in the total, renal and nonrenal clearances of total drug (bound + unbound) was observed, and it was related to the increase in the ex vivo unbound fraction of ceftriaxone as the plasma concentration increased. The nonrenal clearance of the unbound ceftriaxone showed a statistically significant decrease as the plasma concentration of the unbound drug at the steady state increased, which indicates that the nonrenal elimination of the drug (mainly by biliary excretion) is a saturable process. Renal c…
Individual Differences in the Psychobiological Response to Psychosocial Stress (Trier Social Stress Test): The Relevance of Trait Anxiety and Coping …
2014
The main objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of some personality traits to the physiological and psychological response to a standardized laboratory psychosocial stressor (trier social stress test). Cortisol and affective response (anxiety and mood) were analysed in a mixed-sex group composed of 35 young adults who participated in a crossover design (18 men and 17 women). After verifying a statistically significant response to the trier social stress test in all parameters studied in both sex groups, exploratory cluster analyses were carried out to identify sub-groups based on their psychophysiological responses. These analyses showed two different groups: subjects d…
Acute stress does not impair long-term memory retrieval in older people.
2013
Previous studies have shown that stress-induced cortisol increases impair memory retrieval in young people. This effect has not been studied in older people; however, some findings suggest that age-related changes in the brain can affect the relationships between acute stress, cortisol and memory in older people. Our aim was to investigate the effects of acute stress on long-term memory retrieval in healthy older people. To this end, 76 participants from 56 to 76 years old (38 men and 38 women) were exposed to an acute psychosocial stressor or a control task. After the stress/control task, the recall of pictures, words and stories learned the previous day was assessed. There were no differe…
A low cortisol response to acute stress is related to worse basal memory performance in older people
2014
Age-related memory decline has been associated with a faulty regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis). The aim of this study was to investigate whether the magnitude of the stress-induced cortisol increase is related to memory performance when memory is measured in non-stressful conditions. To do so, declarative and working memory performance were measured in 31 men and 35 women between 55 and 77 years of age. On a different day, the magnitude of their cortisol response to acute psychosocial stress was measured. The relationship between the cortisol response and memory performance was U shaped: a low cortisol response to stress was related to poorer declarative and w…
Acute stress and working memory in older people.
2015
Several studies have shown that acute stress affects working memory (WM) in young adults, but the effect in older people is understudied. As observed in other types of memory, older people may be less sensitive to acute effects of stress on WM. We performed two independent studies with healthy older men and women (from 55 to 77 years old) to investigate the effects of acute stress (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST) and cortisol on WM. In study 1 (n = 63), after the TSST women (but not men) improved their performance on Digit Span Forward (a measure of the memory span component of WM) but not on Digit Span Backward (a measure of both memory span and the executive component of WM). Furthermore,…
Memory performance is related to the cortisol awakening response in older people, but not to the diurnal cortisol slope
2015
There are large individual differences in age-related cognitive decline. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) functioning has been suggested as one of the mechanisms underlying these differences. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between the diurnal cortisol cycle, measured as the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and the diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) and the memory performance of healthy older people. To do so, we assessed the verbal, visual, and working memory performance of 64 participants (32 men) from 57 to 76 years old who also provided 14 saliva samples on two consecutive weekdays to determine their diurnal cortisol cycle. The CAR was linearly and negatively…
Men with elevated testosterone levels show more affiliative behaviors during contact with women
2012
Testosterone (T) is thought to play a key role in male–male competition and courtship in many vertebrates, but its precise effects are unclear. We explored whether courtship behaviour in humans is modulated and preceded by changes in T. Pairs of healthy male students first competed in a non-physical contest in which their T levels became elevated. Each participant then had a short, informal interaction with either an unfamiliar man or woman. The sex of the stimulus person did not affect the participants' behaviour overall. However, in interactions with women, those men who had experienced a greater T increase during the contest subsequently showed more interest in the woman, engaged in more…
Are neuroticism and extraversion related to morning cortisol release in healthy older people?
2016
The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is a discrete component of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) function that has been widely related to both health and some personality traits. There is evidence that neuroticism and extraversion affect health and well-being and play a damaging or protective role, respectively. In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between these personality dimensions and morning cortisol concentrations in people aged 55 or older. To do so, morning saliva samples were collected on two consecutive weekdays from a total of 160 older men and women. Neuroticism and extraversion were assessed using the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised, …
Physiological pharmacokinetic model for ceftazidime disposition in the rat and its application to prediction of plasma concentrations in humans
1993
Abstract A physiological pharmacokinetic model for the disposition of ceftazidime in the rat was developed. The model is composed of 10 compartments which represent most of the organs and tissues of the body. Ceftazidime concentration-time profiles in the organs and tissues represented in the model were simulated and compared with the observed concentration-time data after i.v. administration of 5 and 20 mg of antibiotic. The model gave an acceptable description of the observed data. The steady-state volume of distribution and total clearance of ceftazidime in healthy humans predicted from data obtained in the rat (0.21 l/kg and 113 ml/min, respectively) were similar to the values reported …
2D:4D Is Negatively Associated to Aggressive Dominance in Men: A Response to Voracek (2013)
2013
We do not agree with the interpretation and evaluation of our article by Voracek. We feel that our results and our interpretation of the results are supported by our data analyses and do add to the current understanding of the relationship between 2D:4D and personality. We feel confident we can address many, if not all, of Voracek's criticisms. However, we fully agree that 2D:4D research would benefit from more replication and from the use of larger sample sizes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Language: en
Optimism and pessimism are related to different components of the stress response in healthy older people.
2015
Some personality traits have key importance for health because they can affect the maintenance and evolution of different disorders with a high prevalence in older people, including stress pathologies and diseases. In this study we investigated how two relevant personality traits, optimism and pessimism, affect the psychophysiological response of 72 healthy participants (55 to 76 years old) exposed to either a psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) or a control task; salivary cortisol, heart rate (HR) and situational appraisal were measured. Our results showed that optimism was related to faster cortisol recovery after exposure to stress. Pessimism was not related to the …
The cortisol awakening response and memory performance in older men and women.
2012
Summary The activity and regulation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis has been related to cognitive decline during aging. This study investigated whether the cortisol awakening response (CAR) is related to memory performance among older adults. The sample was composed of 88 participants (44 men and 44 women) from 55 to 77 years old. The memory assessment consisted of two tests measuring declarative memory (a paragraph recall test and a word list learning test) and two tests measuring working memory (a spatial span test and a spatial working memory test). Among those participants who showed the CAR on two consecutive days, we found that a greater CAR was related to poorer declarativ…
The impact of cortisol reactivity to acute stress on memory: Sex differences in middle-aged people
2010
Stress has been identified as a main factor involved in the cognitive changes that occur during the aging process. This study investigated sex differences in the relationship between the magnitude of the acute stress-induced salivary cortisol response and memory performance among middle-aged people. To this end, 16 men and 16 women (aged 54-72 years) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test and a control condition in a crossover design. Afterwards their memory performance was measured using a standardized memory test (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test). Only among women, there was an acute impact of stress on memory performance and a significant relationship between a higher cortisol …
Acute pre-learning stress and declarative memory: impact of sex, cortisol response and menstrual cycle phase.
2012
This study explores the influence of pre-learning stress on performance on declarative memory tasks in healthy young adults in relation to sex and menstrual cycle phase. The sample was composed of 119 students (32 men and 87 women) from 18 to 25 years of age. The women were tested in different hormonal stages (30 in follicular phase, 34 in luteal phase, and 23 using oral contraceptives). The participants were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or a control condition. Afterwards, their memory performance was measured using a standardized memory test (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test). In the control condition, all groups of women recalled more words than men, but these differe…
Assessing Performance on an Evaluated Speaking Task
2018
Abstract. Coping with social stress involves cognitive perceptions and the activation of several physiological mechanisms. Our main purpose was to examine how psychological factors such as cognitive appraisal, and particularly self-efficacy, may affect psychophysiological reactivity to social stress and young people’s performance on an evaluated speaking task. Thirty-five university students (18 men and 17 women) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control condition in a counterbalanced order. Self-efficacy, several dimensions of trait anxiety related to social evaluation, and changes in state anxiety were assessed. Additionally, heart rate and heart rate variability …
Testosterone responses to competition: the opponent’s psychological state makes it challenging
2010
Testosterone (T) increases after competition have typically been attributed to winning, yet there is also evidence that being victorious is not in itself sufficient to provoke a T response. Instead, it has been proposed that T responses are moderated by psychological processes. Here, we investigated whether the opponent's psychological state affected hormonal changes in men competing face to face on a rigged computer task. The results show that, irrespective of outcome, the competition led to increases in heart rate and T levels. We found that the T levels of the participants increased more when their opponents had high self-efficacy and that T levels were not influenced by participants' ow…
Acute stress impairs recall after interference in older people, but not in young people.
2013
Stress has been associated with negative changes observed during the aging process. However, very little research has been carried out on the role of age in acute stress effects on memory. We aimed to explore the role of age and sex in the relationship between hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity to psychosocial stress and short-term declarative memory performance. To do so, sixty-seven participants divided into two age groups (each group with a similar number of men and women) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control condition in a crossover design. Memory performance was assessed by the Rey Auditory Verbal …
Coping with an acute psychosocial challenge: behavioral and physiological responses in young women.
2014
Despite the relevance of behavior in understanding individual differences in the strategies used to cope with stressors, behavioral responses and their relationships with psychobiological changes have received little attention. In this study on young women, we aimed at analyzing the associations among different components of the stress response and behavioral coping using a laboratory psychosocial stressor. The Ethological Coding System for Interviews, as well as neuroendocrine, autonomic and mood parameters, were used to measure the stress response in 34 young women (17 free-cycling women in their early follicular phase and 17 oral contraceptive users) subjected to the Trier Social Stress …
Enhancing effects of acute psychosocial stress on priming of non-declarative memory in healthy young adults.
2011
Social stress affects cognitive processes in general, and memory performance in particular. However, the direction of these effects has not been clearly established, as it depends on several factors. Our aim was to determine the impact of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) reactivity to psychosocial stress on short-term non-declarative memory and declarative memory performance. Fifty-two young participants (18 men, 34 women) were subjected to the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST) and a control condition in a crossover design. Implicit memory was assessed by a priming test, and explicit memory was assessed by the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test…
Salivary alpha-amylase response to acute psychosocial stress: The impact of age
2011
a b s t r a c t The impact of stress on health varies across the different stages of human life. Aging is associated with psychobiological changes that could limit our ability to cope with stressors. Therefore, it is crucial to clarify the physiological mechanisms that underlie the stress response and the changes that occur in them as we age. Our aim was to investigate age differences in the salivary alpha amylase (sAA) response to stress, and its relationship with other typical stress biomarkers such as cortisol and heart rate (HR). Sixty-two participants divided into two age groups (younger group: N = 31, age range: 18-35 years; older group: N = 31, age range: 54-71 years) were exposed to…
Testosterone and cortisol release among Spanish soccer fans watching the 2010 World Cup Final
2012
This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, b…
Football fan aggression: the importance of low Basal cortisol and a fair referee.
2015
Fan aggression in football (soccer) is a societal problem that affects many countries worldwide. However, to date, most studies use an epidemiological or survey approach to explain football fan aggression. This study used a controlled laboratory study to advance a model of predictors for fan aggression. To do so, football fans (n = 74) saw a match summary in which their favorite team lost against their most important rival. Next, we measured levels of aggression with the hot sauce paradigm, in which fans were given the opportunity to administer a sample of hot sauce that a rival football supporter had to consume. To investigate if media exposure had the ability to reduce aggression, before …
Hormonal changes of intimate partner violence perpetrators in response to brief social contact with women
2022
This study investigated whether men with a history of real-life aggressive, dominant behavior show increases in testosterone and cortisol levels after brief social contact with women. Furthermore, we tested the prediction that such changes in hormones would be larger than those observed previously in young male students. Sixty-seven male participants convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) either had brief social contact with a female confederate (experimental condition) or a male confederate (control condition). We also performed meta-analyses to investigate whether IPV perpetrators' hormonal responses were larger than the typical responses of young male students in prior studies. All…