Journal: Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE

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Elsevier

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0306-4530
1873-3360

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2014 - 201922020 - 20255
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Publications1 - 7 of 7
  • Chronic social stress in mice alters energy status including higher glucose need but lower brain utilization
    Item type: Journal Article
    Carneiro-Nascimento, Simone; Opacka-Juffry, Jolanta; Costabile, Adele; et al. (2020)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
  • Mood and autonomic responses to repeated exposure to the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G)
    Item type: Journal Article
    Boesch, Maria; Sefidan, Sandra; Ehlert, Ulrike; et al. (2014)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
  • Effects of stress beliefs on the emotional and biological response to acute psychosocial stress in healthy men
    Item type: Journal Article
    Laferton, Johannes A.C.; Bartsch, Lea M.; Möschinger, Tamara; et al. (2023)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
    Background: Negative beliefs about stress (e.g., “stress is bad”) constitute an independent risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality. One potential underlying mechanism are altered responses to acute psychosocial stress. The aim of this study was to investigate whether beliefs about stress are associated with physiological and endocrine stress response patterns. Methods: A total of N = 77 healthy adults were randomised to an experimental and a placebo control group and were subsequently exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Stress beliefs were measured before and after a psychological manipulation aiming at fostering more balanced stress beliefs or a placebo manipulation. Self-reported stress was measured four times before/after the TSST, heart rate was assessed continuously, and cortisol was assessed eight times before/after the TSST. Results: There was a significant decrease in negative stress beliefs (p < .001) and increase in positive stress beliefs (p < .001) in participants in the experimental condition, which was absent in participants in the placebo condition. The participants in the experimental group had more pronounced self-reported stress reactions (p = .028) while at the same time also showing more pronounced stress recoveries (p = .036). The findings regarding cortisol were mixed. Conclusions: More balanced stress beliefs appeared to be associated with more efficient subjective responses to acute psychosocial stress. These findings attest to a potential mechanism translating negative stress beliefs into ill health while at the same time outlining targets for psychological interventions.
  • Associations of psychoactive substances and steroid hormones in hair: Findings relevant to stress research from a large cohort of young adults
    Item type: Journal Article
    Johnson-Ferguson, Lydia; Shanahan, Lilly; Bechtiger, Laura; et al. (2023)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
    Objective: Epidemiological studies increasingly use hair samples to assess people's cumulative exposure to steroid hormones, but how the use of different psychoactive substances may affect steroid hormone levels in hair is, so far, largely unknown. The current study addresses this gap by establishing the substance exposure correlates of cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone in hair, while also accounting for a number of relevant covariates. Method: Data came from a large urban community-sample of young adults with a high prevalence of substance use (N = 1002, mean age=20.6 years, 50.2% female), who provided 3 cm of hair samples. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) quantified cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone, as well as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”), cocaine, several opioids, and their respective metabolites. Multiple linear regression models with covariates were used to predict steroid hormone levels from substance exposure in a four-step approach: In the full sample, low and high substance hair concentrations (median split) were first tested against no use for each substance individually (step 1) and for all substances together (step 2). Then, within the participants with any substance in hair only, the continuous hair concentration of each substance in pg/mg (step 3) and finally of all substances together, were regressed (step 4). Results: Low, high, and continuous levels of THC in hair were robustly associated with higher levels of cortisol (sig. in step 1 low THC: β = 0.29, p =.021; high THC: β = 0.42, p =.001; step 2: low THC: β = 0.27, p = 0.036, and high THC: β = 0.40, p =.004, and step 4: β = 0.12, p =.041). Participants with high MDMA levels had higher levels of cortisone without adjusting for other substances (step 1: β = 0.34, p =.026), but this effect was not significant in the other models. While high THC levels were associated with lower levels of testosterone in step 2 (β = −0.35, p =.018), MDMA concentration was positively related to testosterone concentration with and without adjusting for other substances (step 3: β = 0.24, p =.041; step 4: β = 0.17, 95%, p =.015) in male participants. Conclusion: The use of psychoactive substances, especially of cannabis and ecstasy, should be considered in studies investigating steroid hormones in hair.
  • Influence of oxytocin on emotion recognition from body language: A randomized placebo-controlled trial
    Item type: Journal Article
    Bernaerts, Sylvie; Berra, Emmely; Wenderoth, Nicole; et al. (2016)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
    The neuropeptide ‘oxytocin’ (OT) is known to play a pivotal role in a variety of complex social behaviors by promoting a prosocial attitude and interpersonal bonding. One mechanism by which OT is hypothesized to promote prosocial behavior is by enhancing the processing of socially relevant information from the environment. With the present study, we explored to what extent OT can alter the ‘reading’ of emotional body language as presented by impoverished biological motion point light displays (PLDs). To do so, a double-blind between-subjects randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted, assessing performance on a bodily emotion recognition task in healthy adult males before and after a single-dose of intranasal OT (24 IU). Overall, a single-dose of OT administration had a significant effect of medium size on emotion recognition from body language. OT-induced improvements in emotion recognition were not differentially modulated by the emotional valence of the presented stimuli (positive versus negative) and also, the overall tendency to label an observed emotional state as ‘happy’ (positive) or ‘angry’ (negative) was not modified by the administration of OT. Albeit moderate, the present findings of OT-induced improvements in bodily emotion recognition from whole-body PLD provide further support for a link between OT and the processing of socio-communicative cues originating from the body of others.
  • The effects of single testosterone administration and stress induction on steroid hormone levels in hair
    Item type: Journal Article
    Kutlikova, Hana H.; Eisenegger, Christoph; Krumbholz, Anika; et al. (2025)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
    Hair steroid analysis is increasingly recognized for its ability to capture cumulative hormone secretion, thought to reflect an individual's response to long-term environmental conditions. Despite its growing use, the influence of single, isolated events on hair steroid concentrations remains underexplored. Our study therefore examined the effects of a single-dose transdermal testosterone administration (150 mg) and acute laboratory stress induction on hair testosterone and cortisol levels in a randomized, between-subject, placebo-controlled, and double-blind design. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis revealed a significant increase in hair testosterone levels seven weeks post-testosterone administration, underscoring the efficacy of hair analysis in detecting single-use hormone intake. Moreover, we observed a significant elevation in hair cortisol levels seven weeks post-exposure to the laboratory somatic stressor (Cold pressor test), highlighting the efficacy of hair analysis in capturing experimentally induced hormonal responses. The exploration of contextual factors revealed that individuals in committed relationships exhibited lower levels of both hair cortisol and testosterone compared to those who were single or in uncommitted relationships. Our study provides new insights into the sensitivity of hair analysis for detecting hormonal changes following single-dose hormone administration and experimentally induced short-term stress events. The exploratory findings emphasize the importance of individual contextual factors in influencing hair hormone concentrations and lay the groundwork for further investigation into the dynamics of cumulative hair hormone measurements.
  • Parental status and markers of brain and cellular age: A 3D convolutional network and classification study
    Item type: Journal Article
    de Lange, Ann-Marie G.; Leonardsen, Esten H.; Barth, Claudia; et al. (2024)
    Psychoneuroendocrinology : an international journal : the official journal of ISPNE
    Recent research shows prominent effects of pregnancy and the parenthood transition on structural brain characteristics in humans. Here, we present a comprehensive study of how parental status and number of children born/fathered links to markers of brain and cellular ageing in 36,323 UK Biobank participants (age range 44.57 -82.06 years; 52% female). To assess global effects of parenting on the brain, we trained a 3D convolutional neural network on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images, and estimated brain age in a held -out test set. To investigate regional specificity, we extracted cortical and subcortical volumes using FreeSurfer, and ran hierarchical clustering to group regional volumes based on covariance. Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) derived from DNA was used as a marker of cellular ageing. We employed linear regression models to assess relationships between number of children, brain age, regional brain volumes, and LTL, and included interaction terms to probe sex differences in associations. Lastly, we used the brain measures and LTL as features in binary classification models, to determine if markers of brain and cellular ageing could predict parental status. The results showed associations between a greater number of children born/fathered and younger brain age in both females and males, with stronger effects observed in females. Volume-based analyses showed maternal effects in striatal and limbic regions, which were not evident in fathers. We found no evidence for associations between number of children and LTL. Classification of parental status showed an Area under the ROC Curve (AUC) of 0.57 for the brain age model, while the models using regional brain volumes and LTL as predictors showed AUCs of 0.52. Our findings align with previous population-based studies of middle- and older-aged parents, revealing subtle but significant associations between parental experience and neuroimaging-based surrogate markers of brain health. The findings further corroborate results from longitudinal cohort studies following parents across pregnancy and postpartum, potentially indicating that the parenthood transition is associated with long -term influences on brain health.
Publications1 - 7 of 7