Sex differences in cortisol and memory following acute social stress in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

20 tel: +1 416-785-2500 x3184 21 fax: +1 416-785-4235 22 23 Cortisol and memory in aMCI 2 Highlights: 24 -Amnestic MCI (aMCI) is associated with higher morning cortisol 25 -Stress negatively influences memory in aMCI individuals 26 -Sex may moderate the effects of aMCI on cortisol and memory following stress 27 -The relationship between cortisol and memory may depend on brain health 28 29 Abstract 30Older adults with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) develop Alzheimer's-type Dementia 31 approximately ten times faster annually than the normal population. Higher levels of adrenal hormones are 32 associated with both aging and cognitive decline. In this study, salivary cortisol was sampled diurnally and 33 during memory testing to explore differences in the relationship between cortisol and memory function in males 34 and females with normal cognition and those with aMCI. Participants with aMCI (n=14, mean age=75) were 35 compared to age-matched controls (n=14, mean age=75) on tests of episodic, associative, and working memory 36 across two sessions with a psychosocial stressor in the second session. The aMCI group performed worse on the 37 memory tests than controls and males with aMCI had consistently elevated cortisol levels on both test days. 38Immediate episodic memory performance was enhanced by stress in controls but not in the aMCI group, 39 indicating that aMCI is associated with increased vulnerability to stress-induced alterations in cortisol that can 40 negatively impact memory function. 41 42 KEYWORDS: cortisol, mild cognitive impairment, normal aging, memory, stress, psychosocial stressor, sex 43 differences, men, women, aMCI 44 45 Cortisol and memory in aMCI 3 65 examined the relationships between cortisol, stress, and memory and potential differences between males and 66 females, particularly with regards to MCI or AD.

Acute psychosocial stress impairs intention initiation in young but not older adults

“…In the present study, stress did not affect PM in older adults. This is in line with former research showing that older adults' recall (Hidalgo et al, 2015;Pulopulos et al, 2013), working memory (Murphy et al, 2020;Pulopulos et al, 2015) and other executive functions such as cognitive flexibility (Crosswell et al, 2021) were not impaired under acute stress.…”

Inflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease: Do Sex and APOE Matter?

“…Sex differences in inflammatory biomarker systems may also differentially affect neuroplasticity [29,30], which is reduced in AD and correlates with cognitive decline [31,32]. In addition, peripheral cortisol, the main stress hormone in humans, is elevated in AD [33] and is associated with higher amyloid levels in the brain [34], a reduction in hippocampal volume, and cognitive impairment in older individuals [35] that may depend on MCI status [36]. Peripheral cortisol is also associated with elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines [23,37].…”