TY - JOUR
T1 - Acute stress and working memory in older people
AU - Pulopulos, Matias M.
AU - Hidalgo, Vanesa
AU - Almela, Mercedes
AU - Puig-Perez, Sara
AU - Villada, Carolina
AU - Salvador, Alicia
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Spanish Education and Science Ministry (PSI2010/21343, FPU AP2010-1830, FPU AP2009-4713, FPU12/04597 and FPI/BES-2008-004224) and Generalitat Valenciana (ACOMP/2013/0200, PROMETEO 2011/048 and ISIC/2013/01).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Informa UK Ltd. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/3/4
Y1 - 2015/3/4
N2 - 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, in women, cortisol levels at the moment of memory testing showed a positive association with the memory span component of WM before and after the TSST, and with the executive component of WM only before the stress task. In study 2 (n = 76), although participants showed a cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) response to the TSST, stress did not affect performance on Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS; a task that places a high demand on the executive component of WM). Cortisol and sAA were not associated with WM. The results indicate that circulating cortisol levels at the moment of memory testing, and not the stress response, affect memory span in older women, and that stress and the increase in cortisol levels after stress do not affect the executive component of WM in older men and women. This study provides further evidence that older people may be less sensitive to stress and stress-induced cortisol response effects on memory processes.
AB - 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, in women, cortisol levels at the moment of memory testing showed a positive association with the memory span component of WM before and after the TSST, and with the executive component of WM only before the stress task. In study 2 (n = 76), although participants showed a cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) response to the TSST, stress did not affect performance on Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS; a task that places a high demand on the executive component of WM). Cortisol and sAA were not associated with WM. The results indicate that circulating cortisol levels at the moment of memory testing, and not the stress response, affect memory span in older women, and that stress and the increase in cortisol levels after stress do not affect the executive component of WM in older men and women. This study provides further evidence that older people may be less sensitive to stress and stress-induced cortisol response effects on memory processes.
KW - Aging
KW - cortisol
KW - hypothalamuspituitary-adrenal axis
KW - older people
KW - stress
KW - working memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84937020701&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3109/10253890.2015.1004538
DO - 10.3109/10253890.2015.1004538
M3 - Article
C2 - 25556978
AN - SCOPUS:84937020701
SN - 1025-3890
VL - 18
SP - 178
EP - 187
JO - Stress
JF - Stress
IS - 2
ER -