The effect of hydrocortisone administration on intertemporal choice.

Intertemporal choices - decisions involving trade-offs of outcomes at different points in time - are often made under stress. Stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, resulting in the release of corticosteroids. Recent studies provide evidence that corticosteroids can induce rapid non-genomic effects focused on immediate resolution of the stressful situation, followed by slower genomic effects focused on long-term recovery after stress.

Trait anxiety mediates the effect of stress exposure on post-traumatic stress disorder and depression risk in cardiac surgery patients.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression are common after cardiac surgery. Lifetime stress exposure and personality traits may influence the development of these psychiatric conditions.

Methods: Self-reported rates of PTSD and depression and potential determinants (i.

The Effect of Dexamethasone on Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression After Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care Admission: Longitudinal Follow-Up of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Cardiac surgery and postoperative admission to the ICU may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Perioperatively administered corticosteroids potentially alter the risk of development of these psychiatric conditions, by affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. However, findings of previous studies are inconsistent.

Cortisol mediates the effects of stress on the contextual dependency of memories.

Stress is known to exert considerable impact on learning and memory processes. Typically, human studies have investigated memory for single items (e.g.

Delayed effects of cortisol enhance fear memory of trace conditioning.

Corticosteroids induce rapid non-genomic effects followed by slower genomic effects that are thought to modulate cognitive function in opposite and complementary ways. It is presently unknown how these time-dependent effects of cortisol affect fear memory of delay and trace conditioning. This distinction is of special interest because the neural substrates underlying these types of conditioning may be differently affected by time-dependent cortisol effects.

No effects of psychosocial stress on intertemporal choice.

Intertemporal choices - involving decisions which trade off instant and delayed outcomes - are often made under stress. It remains unknown, however, whether and how stress affects intertemporal choice. We subjected 142 healthy male subjects to a laboratory stress or control protocol, and asked them to make a series of intertemporal choices either directly after stress, or 20 minutes later (resulting in four experimental groups).

Time-dependent effects of cortisol on the contextualization of emotional memories.

Background: The inability to store fearful memories into their original encoding context is considered to be an important vulnerability factor for the development of anxiety disorders like posttraumatic stress disorder. Altered memory contextualization most likely involves effects of the stress hormone cortisol, acting via receptors located in the memory neurocircuitry. Cortisol via these receptors induces rapid nongenomic effects followed by slower genomic effects, which are thought to modulate cognitive function in opposite, complementary ways.

Modulatory mechanisms of cortisol effects on emotional learning and memory: novel perspectives.

It has long been known that cortisol affects learning and memory processes. Despite a wealth of research dedicated to cortisol effects on learning and memory, the strength or even directionality of the effects often vary. A number of the factors that alter cortisol's effects on learning and memory are well-known.

Time-dependent changes in altruistic punishment following stress.

Decisions are rarely made in social isolation. One phenomenon often observed in social interactions is altruistic punishment, i.e.

Individual variations in maternal care early in life correlate with later life decision-making and c-fos expression in prefrontal subregions of rats.

Early life adversity affects hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, alters cognitive functioning and in humans is thought to increase the vulnerability to psychopathology--e.g. depression, anxiety and schizophrenia--later in life.

Introducing the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST): a quick and non-invasive approach to elicit robust autonomic and glucocorticoid stress responses.

Stress-related research has employed several procedures to activate the human stress system. Two of the most commonly used laboratory paradigms are the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and the Cold Pressor Test (CPT). We combined their most stressful features to create a simple laboratory stress test capable of eliciting strong autonomic and glucocorticoid stress responses.

A randomized trial on mineralocorticoid receptor blockade in men: effects on stress responses, selective attention, and memory.

Corticosteroids, released in high amounts after stress, exert their effects via two different receptors in the brain: glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs). GRs have a role in normalizing stress-induced effects and promoting consolidation, while MRs are thought to be important in determining the threshold for activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. We investigated the effects of MR blockade on HPA axis responses to stress and stress-induced changes in cognitive function.

Adult hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor expression and dentate synaptic plasticity correlate with maternal care received by individuals early in life.

Maternal care in mammals is the prevailing environmental influence during perinatal development. The adult rat offspring of mothers exhibiting increased levels of pup licking/grooming (LG; High LG mothers), compared to those reared by Low LG dams, show increased hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor expression, complex dendritic tree structure, and an enhanced capacity for synaptic potentiation. However, these data were derived from studies using the total amount of maternal care directed toward the entire litter, thus ignoring possible within-litter variation.

Implications of psychosocial stress on memory formation in a typical male versus female student sample.

Stress is known to differentially modulate memory function. Memory can be impaired or strengthened by stress, depending on e.g.