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This study investigated whether men with a history of real-life aggressive, dominant behavior show increases in testosterone and cortisol levels after brief social contact with women. Furthermore, we tested the prediction that such changes in hormones would be larger than those observed previously in young male students. Sixty-seven male participants convicted of intimate partner violence (IPV) either had brief social contact with a female confederate (experimental condition) or a male confederate (control condition). We also performed meta-analyses to investigate whether IPV perpetrators' hormonal responses were larger than the typical responses of young male students in prior studies. All statistical analyses were preregistered. Change in testosterone did not differ across experimental conditions, and testosterone in the IPV perpetrators actually declined from baseline in the female confederate condition. Our meta-analysis showed that this testosterone decrease was different from the testosterone increase typically observed in young male students. The cortisol levels of IPV perpetrators did not change in response to contact with women. This result was consistent with our meta-analysis since young male students also did not experience a cortisol change in response to interactions with women. In sum, our findings provide no evidence that male IPV perpetrators exhibit larger hormone increases to brief interactions with women, although it is possible that the men in this sample did not perceive the social contact period as a courtship opportunity. These results suggest that hormone reactivity to social encounters may differ across subject populations and depend on how subjects perceive social situations within laboratory settings.

Little is known about the origin and associated factors of subjective memory complaints (SMCs) in the young population, although they might be closely related to the psychophysiological states produced by stress exposure, such as anxiety and depression. In this regard, resilience has been related to a reduction in these negative states, as well as to more adaptive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. We aimed to investigate the importance of depression, anxiety, and HPA axis activity in SMCs in the young population. We also analysed the relationship between resilience and SMCs through the mediation of depression, anxiety, and the cortisol awakening response (CAR). To do so, we measured SMCs, depression and anxiety states, resilience, and the CAR in 77 healthy young people. Both depression and anxiety were associated with SMCs. In addition, greater resilience was related to fewer SMCs through depression and anxiety. However, the CAR was not related to SMCs, and it did not mediate the relationship between resilience and SMCs. These results suggest that negative affective states have greater importance in SMCs than HPA functioning in this age group, and they also highlight the importance of resilience in the psychological adjustment to stressful situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women are vulnerable to stress-related disorders. Examinations are a source of stress, triggering emotional, cognitive, and hormonal responses. We examined women's psychological and hormonal stress responses and academic performance according to personality during a real-life examination. Female students (N = 66) were divided into two groups based on hierarchical cluster analysis: one cluster characterized by high neuroticism and moderate extraversion (HN-ME; n = 42) and the other by low neuroticism and high extraversion (LN-HE; n = 24). Academic performance, perceived stress, and emotional dysregulation were analyzed. State anxiety, affect, and cortisol release were measured before and on the examination day. The HN-ME cluster was high in perceived stress, emotional dysregulation, and negative affect. This cluster also had higher state anxiety levels two days before and shortly after the examination compared to the LN-HE cluster. Students' cortisol levels were higher on the examination day, and there was a marginal significance of the Cluster factor in the cortisol release regardless of the day of measurement. Women with high neuroticism and moderate extraversion may be more vulnerable to psychological stress in academic settings but similar to other women in their cortisol response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) has gained recent interest as a potential harbinger of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease (CVD). In addition, SCD can be related to depressive symptomatology. However, the association between AD and CVD biomarkers, depressive symptomatology, and SCD is still unclear. We investigated the association of AD and CVD biomarkers and depressive symptomatology with SCD in individuals with subjective memory complaints (SCD-memory group) and individuals with subjective concentration complaints (SCD-concentration group). Methods We recruited a population-based cohort of 217 individuals (all aged 70 years, 53% female participants, 119 SCD-memory individuals, 23 SCD-concentration individuals, and 89 controls). AD and CVD were assessed through cerebrospinal fluid levels of the Aβ42/40 ratio and phosphorylated tau, and white matter signal abnormalities on magnetic resonance imaging, respectively. Associations between biomarkers, depressive symptomatology, and SCD were tested via logistic regression and correlation analyses. Results We found a significant association between depressive symptomatology with SCD-memory and SCD-concentration. Depressive symptomatology was not associated with AD and CVD biomarkers. Both the phosphorylated tau biomarker and depressive symptomatology predicted SCD-memory, and the Aβ42/40 ratio and depressive symptomatology predicted SCD-concentration. Conclusions The role of depressive symptomatology in SCD may differ depending on the stage within the spectrum of preclinical AD (as determined by amyloid-beta and tau positivity), and does not seem to reflect AD pathology. Our findings contribute to the emerging field of subclinical depressive symptomatology in SCD and clarify the association of different types of subjective complaints with distinct syndromic and biomarker profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]