Inducing Death Thoughts Reduces the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress Similar to the Effects of Early-life Adversity: A Life-history Perspective
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F24%3A43921311" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/24:43921311 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-024-00242-5" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-024-00242-5</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40750-024-00242-5" target="_blank" >10.1007/s40750-024-00242-5</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Inducing Death Thoughts Reduces the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress Similar to the Effects of Early-life Adversity: A Life-history Perspective
Original language description
Purpose: Early-life adversity (ELA) affects health by altering the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis. Most studies show that ELA blunts HPA responsivity while others show the opposite. To explain this inconsistency, researchers investigate factors that alter associations between ELA and HPA responsivity. One factor could be conditions that participants encounter before exposure to stressors. Life-history theory suggests ELA alters HPA function by signalling high mortality. Similarly, death thoughts signal acute mortality. Research suggests that thinking about death induces behaviors typical of ELA subjects. We therefore tested whether death thoughts before acute stress mimics the effects of ELA on HPA responsivity.Methods: One hundred twenty eight healthy young men were classified as high or low ELA based on retrospective self-report, and then primed with death thoughts (experimental group) or completed neutral questionnaires (control group). They then underwent a psychosocial stress task. Salivary cortisol was sampled repeatedly to assess HPA responsivity to stress.Results: In the control group, higher ELA correlated with lower cortisol responsivity. In the experimental group, subjects with high ELA did not show altered cortisol responsivity, but low ELA participants displayed significantly blunted responsivity in response to death thoughts. Thus, low ELA participants primed with death thoughts resembled high ELA participants not exposed to death thoughts.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that subtle death cues present in the testing environment may confound associations between ELA and HPA function and should be controlled for in future studies. We discuss how life-history theory could explain how both long-term (ELA) and acute (mortality salience) experiences alter HPA function.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
V - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z jinych verejnych zdroju
Others
Publication year
2024
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology
ISSN
2198-7335
e-ISSN
2198-7335
Volume of the periodical
10
Issue of the periodical within the volume
June
Country of publishing house
DE - GERMANY
Number of pages
29
Pages from-to
182-210
UT code for WoS article
001251306100002
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85196663966