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

Psychostimulant drugs alter the salience of stimuli in both laboratory animals and humans. In animals, stimulants increase rates of responding to conditioned incentive stimuli, and in humans, amphetamine increases positive ratings of emotional images. However, the effects of stimulants on real-life emotional events have not been studied in humans. In this study, we examined the effect of d-amphetamine on responses to acute psychosocial stress using a public speaking task. Healthy volunteers ( N=56) participated in two experimental sessions, one with a psychosocial stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test) and one with a non-stressful control task. They were randomly assigned to receive d-amphetamine (5 mg n=18, 10 mg n=20) or placebo ( n=18) on both sessions under double blind conditions. Salivary cortisol, subjective mood, and vital signs were measured at regular intervals during the session. Subjects also provided cognitive appraisals of the tasks before and after their performances. Amphetamine produced its expected mood and physiological effects, and the Trier Social Stress Test produced its expected effects on cortisol and mood. Although neither dose of amphetamine altered cardiovascular or hormonal responses to stress, amphetamine (10 mg) increased participants’ pre-task appraisals of how challenging the task would be, and it increased post-task ratings of self-efficacy. Paradoxically, it also increased ratings of how stressful the task was, and prolonged aversive emotional responses. These findings suggest that amphetamine differentially affects stress response components: it may increase participants’ appraisals of self-efficacy without dampening the direct emotional or physiological responses to the stress.

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Working Memory Performance Under Stress

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000484 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 67 (2) ◽

pp. 132-139

Author(s):

Petra Luers ◽

Malgorzata Schloeffel ◽

Jens C. Prüssner

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Before And After ◽

The Individual ◽

And Function

Abstract. 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.

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Adolescent girls’ stress responses as prospective predictors of self-injurious thoughts and behaviors: A person-centered, multilevel study

Development and Psychopathology ◽

10.1017/s0954579420002229 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-21

Author(s):

Jason José Bendezú ◽

Casey D. Calhoun ◽

Megan W. Patterson ◽

Abigail Findley ◽

Karen D. Rudolph ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Adolescent Girls ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Affective Valence ◽

Multiple Systems ◽

Adolescent Risk ◽

And Behaviors

Abstract Adolescent risk for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (STBs) involves disturbance across multiple systems (e.g., affective valence, arousal regulatory, cognitive and social processes). However, research integrating information across these systems is lacking. Utilizing a multiple-levels-of-analysis approach, this person-centered study identified psychobiological stress response profiles and linked them to cognitive processes, interpersonal behaviors, and STBs. At baseline, adolescent girls (N = 241, Mage = 14.68 years, Range = 12–17) at risk for STBs completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), questionnaires, and STB interviews. Positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and salivary cortisol (SC) were assessed before and after the TSST. STBs were assessed again during 3, 6, and 9 month follow-up interviews. Multitrajectory modeling of girls’ PA, NA, and SC revealed four profiles, which were compared on cognitive and behavioral correlates as well as STB outcomes. Relative to normative, girls in the affective distress, hyperresponsive, and hyporesponsive subgroups were more likely to report negative cognitive style (all three groups) and excessive reassurance seeking (hyporesponsive only) at baseline, as well as nonsuicidal self-injury (all three groups) and suicidal ideation and attempt (hyporesponsive only) at follow-up. Girls’ close friendship characteristics moderated several profile–STB links. A synthesis of the findings is presented alongside implications for person-centered tailoring of intervention efforts.

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The Relationship Between Perceived Control and Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis Reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test in Healthy Young Adults

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.683914 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Qian Liu ◽

Jianhui Wu ◽

Liang Zhang ◽

Xiaofang Sun ◽

Qing Guan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Stress Response ◽

Hpa Axis ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Perceived Control ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Control Level ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal

Psychological factors can modulate the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity toward stressors. Animal studies demonstrated that uncontrollability was one critical factor associated with HPA axis stress response, but the results in human studies were inconsistent. The current study adopted a standardized laboratory stress induction procedure, the Trier Social Stress Test (the TSST), as the stressor to regulate the objective controllability level, and young adult participants were asked to rate their subjectively perceived control level toward the stressor and measured their cortisol stress responses (N=54; 19 females and 35 males) to address this concern. Results showed that participants’ perceived control on the TSST was related to the cortisol stress response. In other words, under the stress of a certain objective controllability level, the lower the subjectively perceived control level, the greater the HPA axis response. This finding suggested that, in addition to objective controllability, subjectively perceived control is a psychological factor that regulates activation of the HPA axis in young adults.

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The late positive potentials evoked by negative emotional pictures predict autonomic responses to an acute psychosocial stressor in healthy adults

10.1101/2021.05.18.21257390 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hongxia Duan ◽

Zhuxi Yao ◽

Liang Zhang ◽

Nils Kohn ◽

Jianhui Wu

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Stress Test ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Psychosocial Stressor ◽

Autonomic Responses ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Negative Stimuli

Individuals vary substantially in their response to an acute stressor. Identifying the factors contributing to these individual differences in stress reactivity is of particular interest but still remains largely unknown in the stress and resilience domain. The present study aimed to investigate whether and how brain reactivity to negative stimuli during a non-stressful state could predict autonomic and neuroendocrine stress responses to an acute psychosocial stressor in healthy adults. To address this issue, fifty-two healthy young adults were recruited to view negative or neutral pictures while their electroencephalogram was recorded during a non-stressful state on the first experimental day. On the second experimental day, their autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) were measured. Results showed that increased late positive potential (LPP) to negative relative to neutral pictures was significantly associated with higher heart rate response but not with the cortisol response to acute social stress. These results implicate greater neural reactivity to negative stimuli as a physiological marker of heightened acute autonomic responses. These findings may help identify individuals who are at increased risk of developing negative outcomes under stress.

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The effects of acute psychosocial stress on executive functioning in young and older adults

10.32920/ryerson.14647257.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Leen Nasser

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Executive Functioning ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Age Related ◽

Effects Of Stress

It has been evidenced that, with aging, older adults exhibit increased behavioral and physiological responses to stress. Older adults also often experience declines in executive functioning performance. The acute psychological stress induced through the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) has been evidenced to negatively impact executive functioning in young adults. This relationship, however, has yet to be examined in older adults. In the current thesis, two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of stress on executive functioning (Experiment 1), as well as age related differences in stress responsivity and in the effect of stress on executive functioning (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, acute stress exhibited a negative effect on executive functioning. In Experiment 2, there were no age differences in stress responses, and a positive effect of acute stress on executive functioning in young adults only. The contradictory findings encourage further research on the effects of stress on executive functioning, and how they may differ between young and older adults.

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Worldview Under Stress: Preliminary Findings on Cardiovascular and Cortisol Stress Responses Predicted by Secularity, Religiosity, Spirituality, and Existential Search

Journal of Religion and Health ◽

10.1007/s10943-020-01008-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 59 (6) ◽

pp. 2969-2989 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tatjana Schnell ◽

Dietmar Fuchs ◽

René Hefti

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Physiological Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Recovery Period ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Stress Resilience ◽

Cardiovascular Stress ◽

Cortisol Responses ◽

Positive Correlations

AbstractThis study reports preliminary findings on the hypothesis that worldview can predict cardiovascular and cortisol responses to social stress. Based on theory and previous findings, we assumed that worldview security would provide a basis for stress resilience. Accordingly, religious and atheist individuals were expected to show higher stress resilience than spiritual and agnostic participants. Likewise, dimensional measures of religiosity and atheism were hypothesized to predict decreased, and existential search—indicating worldview insecurity—was hypothesized to predict increased physiological stress responses. Subjects included 50 university students who completed online questionnaires and took part in a standardized social stress test (Trier Social Stress Test). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP/DBP), heart rate (HR), and salivary cortisol (SC) were assessed at baseline, immediately after stress testing, and during a forty-minute recovery period. Worldview comparisons revealed lower cardiovascular stress responses among religious than among atheist and spiritual participants and particularly high baseline SC among spiritual participants. Across the entire sample, existential search showed substantial positive correlations with SBP, HR, and SC stress parameters. The findings suggest that worldview security might partly explain the health benefits often associated with religion.

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Impact of Environmental Influence and Vulnerability to Stress in the Development of First Psychotic Episode

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.02.118 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. S277-S278

Author(s):

L. Rossini Gajsak ◽

M. Celic Ruzic ◽

A. Koricancic Makar ◽

M. Rojnic Kuzman

Keyword(s):

Stress Response ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Environmental Influence ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

First Episode ◽

Psychotic Episode ◽

First Psychotic Episode ◽

Vulnerability To Stress

IntroductionSome findings in patients with first psychotic episode (FEP) could be related to alterations of stress responses. Alterations of stress response are reflected in the alterations of the HPA axis.ObjectiveTo assess the difference in stress response in FEP patients and healthy controls as well as implications of environment to vulnerability to psychosis.AimTo assess endocrine and autonomic responses to acute psychosocial stress, their associations with onset of the first psychotic episode as well as the influence of the environmental factors.MethodsWe have assessed clinical status through clinical psychiatric interviews, standardized psychiatric scales and validated psychological scales, (LEQ, WHOQOL-BREF, PBI, Rosenberg) in 45 subjects with FEP and 50 age and gender matched controls. All participants were then exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSTT).ResultsOur preliminary findings on a sample of 95 participants indicate a differences between patients and controls in salivatory cortisol measured in 5 time points during the TSST. Patients with FEP experience more levels of baseline cortisole, and less changes during the stress test then controls. Baseline stress levels indicated in the salivatory cortisole levels correlate with perceived self-esteem, psychological and social quality of life.ConclusionOur findings support the alterations of stress response, possibly indicating vulnerability to stress in persons with FEP.FundingThis work was funded by the grant of the Croatian Science Foundation No UIP-2014-09-1245 Biomarkers in schizophrenia – integration of complementary methods in longitudinal follow up of first episode psychosis patients.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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