Dataset for: ‘Working memory performance under stress: Do women profit from cortisol release, whereas men don’t? A study in healthy older adults’

Acute stress and chronic stress change the physiology and function of the individual. As one facet, stress and its neuroendocrine correlates – with glucocorticoids in particular – modulate memory in a concerted action. With respect to working memory, impairing effects of acute stress and increased levels of glucocorticoids could be expected, but empirical evidence on moderating effects of cortisol on working memory is ambiguous in human studies. In the current study, we thus aimed to investigate cortisol stress responses and memory performance. Older men and women (32 men, 43 women, aged 61–67 years) underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and performed the 2-back task before and after exposure to acute stress. In line with theoretical assumptions, we found that higher cortisol stress responses led to a decline of working memory performance in men. However, the opposite was evident for women, who appeared to benefit from higher stress responses. This effect was evident for accuracy, but not for reaction time. In conclusion, cortisol might mediate working memory alterations with stress in a sex-specific manner in older people. Possible mechanisms and causes for these sex differences put a focus on endocrine changes in the aging population that might lead to differential effects across the lifespan.

急性应激与慢性应激均可改变个体的生理状态与机体功能。其中，应激及其神经内分泌相关因子（尤以糖皮质激素（glucocorticoids）为主）可通过协同作用调节记忆功能。就工作记忆（working memory）而言，急性应激与糖皮质激素水平升高本应产生损害作用，但现有人类研究中，关于皮质醇（cortisol）对工作记忆的调节效应的实验证据仍存在歧义。因此本研究旨在探讨皮质醇应激反应与记忆表现之间的关联。本研究招募了61至67岁的老年男女共75名（男性32名、女性43名），让其在急性应激暴露前后分别完成特里尔社会应激测试（Trier Social Stress Test, TSST）与2-back任务（2-back task）。与理论假设一致，我们发现皮质醇应激反应更强的男性，其工作记忆表现出现下降；但女性的表现则恰好相反，其工作记忆似乎能从更强的应激反应中获益。该效应仅在正确率维度上显著，反应时则无此变化。综上，在老年人群中，皮质醇或可通过性别特异性的方式介导应激引发的工作记忆改变。上述性别差异的潜在机制与成因，将研究焦点置于老年人群的内分泌变化之上——这类变化或会在整个生命周期中引发差异化的效应。