The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ – A Tool for Investigating Psychobiological Stress Responses in a Laboratory Setting

Abstract

This paper describes a protocol for induction of moderate psychological stress in a laboratory setting and evaluates its effects on physiological responses. The ‘Trier Social Stress Test’ (TSST) mainly consists of an anticipation period (10 min) and a test period (10 min) in which the subjects have to deliver a free speech and perform mental arithmetic in front of an audience. In six independent studies this protocol has been found to induce considerable changes in the concentration of ACTH, cortisol (serum and saliva), GH, prolactin as well as significant increases in heart rate. As for salivary cortisol levels, the TSST reliably led to 2- to 4-fold elevations above baseline with similar peak cortisol concentrations. Studies are summarized in which TSST-induced cortisol increases elucidated some of the multiple variables contributing to the interindividual variation in adrenocortical stress responses. The results suggest that gender, genetics and nicotine consumption can influence the individual’s stress responsiveness to psychological stress while personality traits showed no correlation with cortisol responses to TSST stimulation. From these data we conclude that the TSST can serve as a tool for psychobiological research.

Performance on a declarative memory task is better in high than low cortisol responders to psychosocial stress

“…More realistic paradigms, such as the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum et al, 1993), combine tasks known to elicit HPA axis changes due to incontrollable and socialevaluative characteristics of the situation (Dickerson and Kemeny, 2004). In studies using the TSST or similar paradigms, psychosocial stress mostly resulted in impaired memory retreival (Kirschbaum et al, 1996;Lupien et al, 1997;Wolf et al, 2001b;Kuhlmann et al, 2005b), with some studies showing enhanced consolidation (Abercrombie et al, 2006;Beckner et al, 2006).…”

“…Stress protocol: The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was applied (Kirschbaum et al, 1993). The testing took place between 1400h and 1800h.…”

Irritability in boys with autism spectrum disorders: an investigation of physiological reactivity

“…The PST was a modified version of the TSST (Kirschbaum et al., 1993) with the mental arithmetic task replaced with the Rey‐Osterrieth Complex Figure test (Osterrieth, 1944; Rey, 1941). During the 20‐min stress paradigm, participants were asked to: copy a complex figure, prepare a speech about themselves in 10 min, give a 5‐min presentation, and remember and reproduce the complex figure under timed conditions.…”

Sex determines cortisol and alpha‐amylase responses to acute physical and psychosocial stress in patients with avoidant personality disorder

“…1993). TSST consists of a 3‐min preparation period, a 5‐min speech task, during which the participants had to discourse about their personal characteristics, and a 5‐min mental arithmetic task.…”