Inducing Death Thoughts Reduces the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress Similar to the Effects of Early-life Adversity: A Life-history Perspective

Kód výsledku v 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>

Výsledek na webu

<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>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

Inducing Death Thoughts Reduces the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress Similar to the Effects of Early-life Adversity: A Life-history Perspective

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

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.

Název v anglickém jazyce

Inducing Death Thoughts Reduces the Cortisol Response to Psychosocial Stress Similar to the Effects of Early-life Adversity: A Life-history Perspective

Popis výsledku anglicky

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.

Druh

J_imp - Článek v periodiku v databázi Web of Science

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Projekt

—

Návaznosti

V - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z jinych verejnych zdroju

Rok uplatnění

2024

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

ISSN

2198-7335

e-ISSN

2198-7335

Svazek periodika

10

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

June

Stát vydavatele periodika

DE - Spolková republika Německo

Počet stran výsledku

29

Strana od-do

182-210

Kód UT WoS článku

001251306100002

EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

2-s2.0-85196663966