title: The cortisol awakening response and memory performance in older men and women.
abstract: 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 declarative memory performance in both men and women, and to better working memory performance only in men. The results of our study suggest that the relationship between CAR and memory performance is negative in men and women when memory performance is largely dependent on hippocampal functioning (i.e. declarative memory), and positive, but only in men, when memory performance is largely dependent on prefrontal cortex functioning (i.e. working memory).
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Social Neuroscience, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Mercedes.Almela@uv.es
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Almela
authors.forename: Leander
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: van der Meij
authors.forename: Vanesa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Villada
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salvador
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010912:Pituitary-Adrenal Function Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D013997:Time Factors; D014851:Wakefulness / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D006854:Hydrocortisone