Browsing by Subject "Psychosocial stress"

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    Effects of psychosocial stress on the hormonal and affective response in T children with dyslexia
    (Elsevier, 2019-03-08) Espín López, Laura; García, Irene; Sánchez López, María del Pino; Román, Francisco; Salvador, Alicia; Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia
    Introduction: Research on stress and dyslexia has mainly focused on chronic and contextual stress caused by the school environment. Our goal was to test individual differences in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity of dyslexic and non-dyslexic children and the related emotional manifestations associated with ex- posure to a psychosocial stressor. Methods: Eighty-one children (11–14 years old; 38 dyslexic) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test adapted to children or to a control condition. The salivary cortisol response, anxiety, and mood were measured before and after the stress. Results: Dyslexic children did not show the expected cortisol response, as the highest percentage of children who were non-reactive to stress was found in this group. Cortisol reactivity to stress was related to higher levels of anxiety and lower positive affect in the non-dyslexic children. Conclusion: These results suggest a pattern of hypo-activation of the HPA axis to psychosocial stress in children with dyslexia.
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    Effects of sex and menstrual cycle phase on cardiac response and alpha- amylase levels in psychosocial stress
    (Elsevier, 2019-01) Espín López, Laura; Villada, Carolina; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Salvador, Alicia; Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia
    The impact of sex and the menstrual cycle phase on the autonomic response to psychosocial stress remains controversial. This study explored autonomic nervous system activity through salivary alpha-amylase, heart rate, and heart rate variability responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in healthy young people. The sample was composed of 25 men, 26 women in the luteal phase, and 25 women in the follicular phase, from 18 to 25 years of age. Participants were exposed to the TSST or a control condition. The results indicate that women in their follicular phase showed a blunted alpha-amylase response to stress compared to men and women in the luteal phase. In addition, men showed higher sympatho-vagal activity in the stress condition compared to the two groups of women. These results confirm that sex and the menstrual cycle phase are potential modulators of autonomic nervous system reactivity to psychosocial stress.
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    Enhancing effects of acute psychosocial stress on priming of non-declarative memory in healthy young adults
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2012) Espín López, Laura; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Villada, Carolina; Almela, Mercedes; Gómez Amor, Jesús; Salvador, Alicia; Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia
    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 (RAVLT). The TSST provoked greater salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) responses than the control task. Men had a higher cortisol response to stress than women, but no sex differences were found for sAA release. Stress was associated with an enhancement of priming but did not affect declarative memory. Additionally, the enhancement on the priming test was higher in those whose sAA levels increased more in response to stress (r48 1⁄4 0.339, p 1⁄4 0.018). Our results confirm an effect of acute stress on priming, and that this effect is related to SNS activity. In addition, they suggest a different relationship between stress biomarkers and the different memory systems.
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    Salivary alpha-amylase response to acute psychosocial stress: the impact of age
    (Elsevier, 2011-07) Espín López, Laura; Almela, Mercedes; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Villada, Carolina; Meij, Leander van der; Gómez Amor, Jesús; Salvador, Alicia; Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia
    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 the Trier Social Stress Test and a control condition in a crossover design. No age differences were found in the sAA or HR responses to stress. However, the sAA global output was higher in older than younger adults. Additionally, in the stress condition, the total amount of cortisol released was positively related to the total sAA released, while the HR increase was positively related to the sAA increase. Our results do not support the existence of an attenuated autonomic nervous system response to stress in older adults, but rather a heightened sympathetic tone. Furthermore, we found further evidence of the coordination between the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal system and the autonomic nervous system in their response to acute psychosocial stress.
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    Subclinical social anxiety in healthy young adults: Cortisol and subjective anxiety in response to acute stress
    (Universidad de Murcia. Servicio de Publicaciones, 2021) Mirete, Marcos; Molina, Sergio; Villada, Carolina; Hidalgo, Vanesa; Salvador, Alicia
    No existe consenso sobre el patrón de liberación de cortisol y su relación con la ansiedad subjetiva en situaciones de estrés en población con ansiedad social. Nuestro objetivo fue determinar la respuesta de cortisol y ansiedad subjetiva en individuos con ansiedad social sometidos a un estresor psicosocial agudo. 26 universitarios (58.6% hombres), edad media = 21.62 ± 0.43, fueron expuestos a la versión estrés o control del Maastricht Acute Stress Test. El cortisol salival y la ansiedad subjetiva fueron medidos antes, durante y post-estrés. Los participantes mostraron un incremento en los niveles de cortisol durante las fases de estrés y post-estrés, con una respuesta significativamente mayor en aquellos con ansiedad social. Los participantes con alta ansiedad social mostraron, a nivel muestral, mayores niveles de ansiedad subjetiva, especialmente post-estrés. Sólo en la fase de estrés, el cortisol y la ansiedad subjetiva correlacionaron significativamente en los participantes socialmente ansiosos. Los hallazgos apoyan una hiperresponsividad de cortisol en población no clínica y joven con alta ansiedad social. Futuras investigaciones deberían estudiar los factores involucrados y efectos de esta respuesta fisiológica en la salud. Asimismo, se resalta la necesidad de controlar la ansiedad social en experimentos que utilicen un estresor psicosocial de laboratorio.
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    The impact of cortisol reactivity to acute stress on memory: Sex differences in middle-aged people
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2011) Espín López, Laura; Almela, Mercedes; Hidalgo, Teresa; Villada, Carolina; Gómez Amor, Jesús; Salvador, Alicia; Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Psicología y Logopedia
    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 response to the stressor and poorer memory performance in both the stress and control conditions. Additionally, a poorer memory performance was related to earlier timing of sexual maturation (age at menarche), which was also marginally related to higher cortisol reactivity to stress. These results confirm that sex is a critical factor in the relationship between cortisol and poor memory performance. Furthermore, the findings emphasize a strong link between the individual cortisol response to stress and memory functioning among postmenopausal women.