title: Stress and reward: long term cortisol exposure predicts the strength of sexual preference.
abstract: Healthy individuals tend to consume available rewards like food and sex. This tendency is attenuated or amplified in most stress-related psychiatric conditions, so we asked if it depends on endogenous levels of the 'canonical stress hormone' cortisol. We unobtrusively quantified how hard healthy heterosexual men would work to consume erotic images of women versus men and also measured their exposure to endogenous cortisol in the prior two months. We used linear models to predict the strength of sexual preference from cortisol level, after accounting for other potential explanations. Heterosexual preference declines with self-reported anhedonia but increases with long term exposure to endogenous cortisol. These results suggest that cortisol may affect reward-related behavior in healthy adults.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: justin.chumbley@econ.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Chumbley
authors.affiliation: Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Denmark.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hulme
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Köchli
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.affiliation: University of Western Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Uum
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: A Pizzagalli
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D059445:Anhedonia / Q000502:physiology*; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012201:Reward; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Anhedonia; Cortisol; Reward; Sexual; Stress