A meta-analysis of cortisol reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test in virtual environments

2019 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 104437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily C Helminen ◽  
Melissa L Morton ◽  
Qiu Wang ◽  
Joshua C Felver
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity

scholarly journals Sex differences in salivary cortisol reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST): A meta-analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 26-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny J.W. Liu ◽  
Natalie Ein ◽  
Katlyn Peck ◽  
Vivian Huang ◽  
Jens C. Pruessner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Salivary Cortisol ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity

scholarly journals The Nature of Reality: Human Stress Recovery during Exposure to Biodiverse, Multisensory Virtual Environments

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan Faith Schebella ◽  
Delene Weber ◽  
Lisa Schultz ◽  
Philip Weinstein
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Stress Recovery ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Olfactory Stimuli ◽  
Human Stress

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) were used to test the effects of biodiversity on recovery from induced stress. Three natural environments and one urban environment were used to represent ordinal levels of biodiversity (none, low, moderate, and high). The four IVEs comprised visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli. An additional high biodiversity IVE without auditory or olfactory stimuli was also included to study the effects of multisensory stimulation per se on recovery from stress and perceptions of biodiversity. Following stress induction via a novel IVE Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-IVE), heart rate and five self-reported well-being measures were used to assess participants’ recovery after immersion in one of the five IVEs. The results showed consistent well-being responses across both self-reported and physiological measures, suggesting biodiversity does directly affect human well-being. However, the relationship was not linear. For most measures of well-being, stress recovery was least effective in the urban IVE, consistent with past research. The low biodiversity IVE elicited the greatest improvement in all well-being measures except self-reported calmness. One could speculate that the landscape features of the least biodiverse IVE may elicit subconscious preferences toward savanna-like landscapes, as suggested by previous studies. The IVE depicting a moderate level of biodiversity was the least restorative of the natural environments. A multisensory experience was associated with better recovery in all measures of well-being than a visual-only experience, and perceptions of landscape components significantly differed between two identical nature scenes when auditory and olfactory stimuli were removed. Nuances in the data and implications of the findings are discussed. The results signal a need for caution and question the assumption that cultural ecosystem services align with positive outcomes for biodiversity conservation.

Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the Trier Social Stress Test in eliciting physiological stress responses in children and adolescents

2020 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 104582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica A. Seddon ◽  
Violeta J. Rodriguez ◽  
Yannick Provencher ◽  
Jacquelyn Raftery-Helmer ◽  
Jacqueline Hersh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test

scholarly journals Twenty-five years later: How consistent are studies using the Trier Social Stress Test protocol - A Systematic Review of its methodology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolás Francisco Narvaez Linares ◽  
Valérie Charron ◽  
Allison Ouimet ◽  
Patrick R. Labelle ◽  
Hélène Plamondon
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Test Protocol ◽  
Arithmetic Task ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Testing Procedures ◽  
Related Data

Since its development in 1993, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has been used widely as a psychosocial stress paradigm to activate the sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) stress systems, stimulating physiological functions (e.g. heart rate) and cortisol secretion. Several methodological variations introduced over the years have led the scientific community to question replication between studies. In this systematic review, we used the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) to synthesize procedure-related data available about the TSST protocol to highlight commonalities and differences across studies. We noted significant discrepancies across studies in how researchers applied the TSST protocol. In particular, we highlight variations in testing procedures (e.g., number of judges, initial number in the arithmetic task, time of the collected saliva samples for cortisol) and discuss possible misinterpretation in comparing findings from studies failing to control for variables or using a modified version from the original protocol. Further, we recommend that researchers use a standardized background questionnaire when using the TSST to identify factors that may influence physiological measurements in tandem with a summary of this review as a protocol guide. More systematic implementation and detailed reporting of TSST methodology will promote study replication, optimize comparison of findings, and foster an informed understanding of factors affecting responses to social stressors in healthy people and those with pathological conditions. Keywords: Trier Social Stress Test, Stress paradigm, Protocol, Systematic Review, Standardization

scholarly journals Developmental changes in hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal activity over the transition to adolescence: Normative changes and associations with puberty

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan R. Gunnar ◽  
Sandi Wewerka ◽  
Kristin Frenn ◽  
Jeffrey D. Long ◽  
Christopher Griggs
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Pubertal Development ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Sympathetic Modulation ◽  
Pituitary Adrenal Axis ◽  
Depressed Symptoms ◽  
Child Depressive Symptoms

AbstractHome baseline and laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test for Children) measures of salivary cortisol were obtained from 82 participants (40 girls) aged 9, 11, 13, and 15 years. Measures of pubertal development, self-reported stress, parent reports of child depressive symptoms and fearful temperament, and cardiac measures of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity were also obtained. Significant increases in the home cortisol baselines were found with age and pubertal development. Cortisol stress reactivity differed by age group with 11-year-olds and 13-year-old boys showing blunted reactivity and 9-year-olds, 13-year-old girls, and 15-year-olds showing significant cortisol reactions. Cortisol reactivity correlated marginally with sexual maturation. Measures of sympathetic activity revealed increased sympathetic modulation with age. Higher sympathetic tone was associated with more fearful temperament, whereas greater cortisol reactivity was associated with more anxious and depressed symptoms for girls. The importance of these findings for the hypothesis that puberty-associated increases in hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity heightens the risk of psychopathology is discussed.

Genetic moderation of cortisol secretion in Holocaust survivors

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayala Fridman ◽  
Marinus H. van IJzendoorn ◽  
Abraham Sagi-Schwartz ◽  
Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Stress ◽  
Comparison Group ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Secretion ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Diurnal Cortisol ◽  
Deletion Variant ◽  
Cortisol Levels

In the current study we tested whether ADRA2B moderates stress regulation of Holocaust survivors as indexed by their diurnal cortisol secretion and cortisol reactivity to a stressor. Salivary cortisol levels of 54 female Holocaust survivors and participants in the comparison group were assessed during a routine day and in response to a stress-evoking procedure (an adapted version of the Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]). ADRA2B did not moderate differences between Holocaust survivors and participants in the comparison group in terms of cortisol reactivity to the TSST. Holocaust survivors with the wildtype ADRA2B, however, displayed higher diurnal cortisol levels than did participants in the comparison group with the same genotype, whereas no difference was found between these groups in carriers of the deletion variant, previously associated with more reexperiencing of traumatic events. Carriers of the deletion variant might have been driven in the long run to resolve their vividly remembered experiences, and therefore currently show less stress dysregulation as evident from their cortisol levels.

Sex Differences in the Cortisol Response to the Trier Social Stress Test in Depressed and Nondepressed Adolescents

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raegan Mazurka ◽  
Katherine E. Wynne-Edwards ◽  
Kate L. Harkness
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Trier Social Stress Test ◽  
Cortisol Response ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Response To Stress ◽  
Adolescent Period

Two of the most robust findings in depression research are (a) that women are twice as likely to become depressed than men and (b) that stress is an important risk factor for depression. Although sex differences in stress reactivity may be an important determinant of differential risk for depression, few studies have examined sex differences in neurobiological reactivity to stress. The purpose of the current study was to assess sex differences in the HPA axis response to stress in depressed versus healthy controls by comparing the cortisol response to the Trier Social Stress Test in a community sample of adolescents (ages 12–18). Depressed boys showed significantly heightened cortisol reactivity compared with depressed girls, whose response was blunted compared with nondepressed girls. This diverging pattern of cortisol reactivity to stress among depressed girls and boys may help to explain the sex difference in depression prevalence that emerges during the adolescent period.

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