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Psychological stress is a major contributor to individual health disparities. Accurate and quantitative detection of stress markers is crucial preventing mental health related problems. Supramolecular chemistry is widely used in drug delivery, catalysis, sensors and other applications. However, due to the difficulty of host functionalization such as cyclodextrins and solid-state pillar[n], it is still a challenge to directly realize the detection of guests through host-guest recognition behavior. Here, we reported an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) fluorescent biosensor for direct and selective detection of guest molecule stress marker cortisol, translating molecular recognition behavior into quantifiable detection signals. Realizes quantitative chemical detection and builds a portable and affordable sensing platform for quantitative detection of target molecules without complex cross-linking steps. Overcomes the disadvantages of traditional methods that require the use of antibodies or are difficult to functionalize during the host-guest recognition process. This ATRP fluorescent biosensor was fabricated by employing zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) as a photocatalyst under 630 nm wavelength radiation, β-CD-Br 15 as a macromolecular initiator, and fluorescein O-methacrylate (FMA-O) as a monomer for polymerization. The system provides ultra-high sensitivity for the detection of cortisol (limit of detection 0.47 ng/mL) and specificity for the detection of cortisol in the presence of interfering substances such as progesterone and urea. Selective and real sample experiments confirm the specificity and scalability of this mechanism can also be customized by the rational design of the host-guest complex to quantitatively detect various molecules. This study confirms the feasibility of using a cyclodextrin-centered macromolecular initiator as a capture and label-free fluorescent biosensor for cortisol, a stress biomarker., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a biologically determined trait that influences how individuals respond to external and internal stimuli. A high level of SPS is characterized by three factors: increased emotional reactivity, heightened sensitivity to subtle stimuli, and greater susceptibility to overstimulation, all of which may impact well-being and health. This study examined the relationships between SPS, perceived stress, affect, and biochemical responses in adult dental patients (N = 157) on the day of a routine dental visit. Biochemical measures included morning cortisol and serotonin secretion (saliva samples), and cortisol concentration accumulated in recent months (hair sample). Perceived stress and negative and positive affect were assessed while patients waited for a dental procedure. The correlation analysis revealed that higher SPS level was associated with elevated hair cortisol and more negative affect. Cluster analyses tested SPS and its factors independently, revealing that individuals with higher SPS had higher cortisol levels in saliva and hair samples, as well as greater perceived stress and negative affect. Salivary serotonin levels showed varied relationships with different SPS factors, indicating the need to analyze SPS as a multidimensional construct. The results indicate that increased hair and salivary cortisol may be considered as biomarkers of SPS. In the context of patient-centered care, considering SPS levels may contribute to enhanced motivation for regular dental visits and improved treatment adherence., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)

Physical exercise has the potential to influence stress reactivity, but experimental data in children are lacking. The main objective of this randomized cross-over study was to investigate the effect of a moderately-intense exercise bout on children's physiological and psychological reactions to a subsequent acute psychosocial stressor. On two separate laboratory appointments, 114 children (62 female) aged between 10 and 13 years completed the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C) and a nonstressful control task, respectively. Fifty-seven participants engaged in an exercise bout prior to the conditions and were matched (based on sex, age, and everyday moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity) to a control group, who did not engage in a physically demanding task. Stress reactivity was assessed using saliva cortisol and heart rate (calculated area under the response curve) and self-reported anxiety (post minus pre score). Repeated measures analyses of variance revealed main effects of condition, indicating higher stress reactivity in the TSST-C compared to control for cortisol, heart rate, and anxiety. There were no significant interactions of group and condition. However, a three-way interaction involving chronic stress indicated favorable cortisol reactivity patterns after acute exercise compared to the resting condition, but only for participants with higher levels of chronic stress. While results indicate no generalizable effect of acute exercise on children's physiological and psychological reactivity to acute psychosocial stress, acute exercise seems to transiently counteract chronic stress-induced hyperreactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis., (© 2025 The Author(s). European Journal of Sport Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH on behalf of European College of Sport Science.)

Dysregulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) and of the autonomic nervous system may link stress throughout the life course with poorer health. This study aims to investigate whether multiple adverse childhood experiences have a long-term impact on markers of these systems - cortisol secretion and heart rate variability - in adulthood. Data were from the Whitehall II cohort study. Fourteen adversities, collected retrospectively in midlife, were considered. Outcomes were total amount of cortisol secretion during the day (area under the curve [AUC]), cortisol awakening response (CAR), and diurnal slope, estimated from six saliva samples taken on a weekday; and resting heart rate (rHR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measured for five minutes at three time points over 10 years with the last measures taken at the same time as the salivary measurement. Regression models were used to examine the association of adversities with AUC, CAR, rHR and HRV and multilevel modelling was applied to analyses of cortisol diurnal slope and the 10-year follow-up of rHR and HRV. At least one early life adversity was reported by 68 % of participants. There was little evidence that increasing number of adversities was associated with any measures of cortisol, rHR or HRV or 10-year change in rHR or HRV. Of the individual adversities, only parental death was associated with increased AUC and CAR. In conclusion, although the HPA axis and autonomic nervous system have been hypothesized as mechanisms relating to adverse childhood experiences with health, our study finds no evidence to support this., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Traditional and non-traditional strategies have been employed to improve youth health. Dog-assisted interventions have been proposed as a novel strategy to regulate stress and its consequences across all age groups. This systematic review and multilevel meta-analysis assessed the influence of dog-assisted interventions on cortisol levels in youth and explored potential moderators., Sources: We conducted a comprehensive systematic search across multiple databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect, up to June 17, 2024, to evaluate the impact of dog-assisted interventions on youth cortisol levels. Two reviewers independently extracted and verified data from eligible randomized clinical trials, with a third reviewer ensuring accuracy. Cochrane's RoB 2.0 tool was used to assess the risk of bias. Heterogeneity was analyzed using Q and I 2 statistics. A random-effects model was employed to calculate effect sizes (ES) using R software., Summary of the Findings: Significant cortisol reductions were found for interventions lasting >15 min (ES: 0.65; p = .038), with a non-significant trend towards reduced cortisol in non-medical settings (ES: 0.46; p = .070). No significant effects were observed for shorter interventions, different control groups, or age-specific analyses. Meta-regression analysis revealed significant differences, showing better outcomes with longer intervention times and fewer female participants., Conclusion: Dog-assisted interventions lasting >15 min seem to be a promising and non-traditional strategy for regulating cortisol levels in children and adolescents in stressful situations. This study outlines gaps in the research and future directions., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: We assessed levels of mRNA encoding two glucocorticoid receptor (GR) isoforms (GRα and GRβ) in saliva and examined their relationship with hair cortisol levels and dental caries experience., Design: Adolescents and young adults were assessed for dental caries experience, and hair cortisol was measured by ELISA. RNA was extracted from whole saliva using TRIzol, followed by quantitative real-time PCR analysis of GRα, GRβ, and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH)., Results: GRβ mRNA was not detectable in most samples, whereas GRα mRNA was observed in all samples. There were significantly lower levels of GRα mRNA in individuals with elevated hair cortisol levels than in those with normal cortisol levels. Levels of GRα mRNA did not differ significantly in individuals with dental caries experience compared to individuals with no caries experience., Conclusions: We identified and quantified mRNA encoding GRα in saliva. Its levels were inversely associated with hair cortisol (a marker of chronic stress). Although caries experience was associated with hair cortisol levels, there was no significant association between GRα levels and caries experience. Chronic stress has been proposed to be associated with reduced expression of GRα and this association appears to hold for GRα mRNA levels in saliva., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education can be stressful, but uncertainty exists about (a) whether stressful academic settings elevate cortisol, particularly among students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, and (b) whether cortisol responses are associated with academic performance. In four classes around the first exam in a gateway college STEM course, we investigated participants' ( N = 271) cortisol levels as a function of race/ethnicity and tested whether cortisol responses predicted students' performance. Regardless of race/ethnicity, students' cortisol, on average, declined from the beginning to the end of each class and across the four classes. Among underrepresented minority (URM) students, higher cortisol responses predicted better performance and a lower likelihood of dropping the course. Among non-URM students, there were no such associations. For URM students, lower cortisol responses may have indicated disengagement, whereas higher cortisol responses may have indicated striving. The implication of cortisol responses can depend on how members of a group experience an environment., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Prenatal stress has a well-established link to negative biobehavioral outcomes in young children, particularly for girls, but the specific timing during gestation of these associations remains unknown. In the current study, we examined differential effects of timing of prenatal stress on two infant biobehavioral outcomes [i.e., hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity and difficult temperament] that are early-life precursors to the development of psychopathology. We obtained the most granular assessment of prenatal stress to date involving weekly stress ratings from 396 pregnant women between 15 and 41 weeks gestation. At 6 months postpartum, infant salivary cortisol was collected (n = 173) before and after a stressful laboratory task and mothers reported on infant temperament (n = 244). Machine learning explored both between- and within-person regression effects of prenatal stress on the two infant biobehavioral outcomes. For HPA axis reactivity, we found a sensitive period during mid-gestation (weeks 20 and 29) for girls, but during late gestation (week 37) for boys. For difficult temperament, we found a between-persons effect of mean stress level as well as sensitive periods in mid (weeks 20, 21, 25) and late gestation (week 37) for girls, but across mid to late gestation (weeks 25, 27, 30, 34, 40) for boys. This study is the first to use a weekly assessment across gestation to demonstrate specific windows of sensitivity for infant biobehavioral precursors of child psychopathology. The findings highlight that biological sex critically influences specific timing of these prenatal stress associations with infant outcomes, thus informing our understanding of sex differences in early biobehavioral markers of psychopathology., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None, (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In a variety of settings, cortisol and testosterone are positively "coupled." That is, within-person fluctuations of these hormones occur in parallel, with increases and decreases in one hormone corresponding to increases and decreases in the other. A dataset comprised of salivary cortisol and testosterone levels from varsity women athletes from six different Emory University sports teams (volleyball 2002, 2005, and 2008; softball 2004; tennis 2009; soccer 2013) was used to explore the relationship between coupling and hormone reactivity to athletic competition. In the majority of athletes, athletic competition was associated with increases in levels of salivary cortisol and testosterone occurring principally during the period between the start of warm-up and the end of competition. Athletes varied with respect to the degree that cortisol and testosterone were coupled. Athletes for whom these two hormones were strongly coupled showed substantially higher competition-related increases in cortisol and testosterone levels than athletes for whom these hormones were less strongly coupled. This heretofore undocumented relationship between hormone coupling and hormone reactivity in a sport setting is consonant with the idea that increases in cortisol and testosterone are parts of a coordinated and complementary response to the physical and/or psychological stress of athletic competition. Given that cortisol and testosterone, each in their own way(s) positively affect athletic performance, a singular benefit of cortisol/testosterone coupling may be an enhanced reactivity to competition, with a corresponding increase in the positive effects of each of these hormones on performance., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Abstract: Memory biases for pain-related information may contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic pain; however, evidence for when (and for whom) these biases occur is mixed. Therefore, we examined neural, stress, and psychological factors that could influence memory bias, focusing on memories that motivate disabling behaviors: pain perception, conditioned responses to threat-and-safety cues, and responses to aversive nonnoxious stimuli. Two studies were conducted with adolescents with and without chronic pain. Data from 58 participants were included in study 1 (chronic pain n = 34, pain free n = 24, mean age = 16 years), and 39 participants were included in study 2 (chronic pain n = 26, pain free n = 13, mean age = 16 years). Both studies used a threat-safety learning paradigm with memory recall (≈1 month later). Participants completed structural and functional (resting-state) magnetic resonance imaging, salivary cortisol measurements, and self-report measures. Adolescents with pain and pain-free peers consistently recalled being more afraid of safety cues (CS-) and, during heightened stress at encoding (higher cortisol levels), also reported being more afraid of threat cues (CS+). However, no memory bias was present for the emotional response to an aversive stimulus (US; loud scream) or for the recall of pain intensity. Functional connectivity of the amygdala and hippocampus with memory circuits related to the degree of memory bias, but the specific connections varied between the studies, and we observed no relationship between memory bias and brain morphology. Our findings highlight the value of considering the interaction between implicit and explicit memory systems, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of emotional memory biases in the context of chronic pain., (Copyright © 2024 International Association for the Study of Pain.)

An accurate assay was developed by integrating a novel lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) design, smartphone-based photoluminescence detection, and computer-aided analysis using machine learning algorithms for the quantitative measurement of cortisol levels in human saliva samples. The unique LFIA strip incorporates a photoluminescent film, which enables photoluminescence detection without an external light source, beneath a nitrocellulose membrane. A smartphone is used to capture images of the LFIA test strips, and specific regions in the captured images are analyzed. The digitized data are then processed using a computer. Machine learning algorithms were employed to interpret the data and quantify cortisol levels in saliva samples obtained from 14 volunteers. The developed assay was shown to be highly accurate, and a low average difference of 18.12% was observed between the predicted cortisol levels and those measured using an established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in real saliva samples. The assay has a calculated limit of detection of approximately 139 pg/mL. Furthermore, the strong correlation (r = 0.935) between the results of the developed assay and the ELISA results supports its validity., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Studies of salivary cortisol levels in psychosis have yielded inconsistent findings, which may be attributable to heterogeneity in cortisol measurement, illness stage, and approaches to dealing with sampling factors and potential confounders. To address these issues, we performed an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis comparing individuals at different stages of psychosis to controls using five different salivary cortisol measures and explored potential effect modifiers., Methods: Salivary cortisol data from five London-based cohorts were used to derive the cortisol awakening response, total daytime cortisol output, basal cortisol, and diurnal slope measures (wake-to-evening and peak-to-evening). Linear regression models were first performed to obtain standardised beta coefficients (β), representing the difference in each cortisol metric between each clinical stage group (cases) and healthy individuals (controls) after accounting for relevant sampling factors; we then used random-effects meta-analyses and meta-regression models to investigate the effect of psychosis stage and sample characteristics on effect sizes., Results: Data were available for 352 individuals distributed across psychosis clinical stages (1a - distress disorder: N = 35; 1b - clinical high-risk for psychosis: N = 90; 2a - first-episode psychosis: N = 197; 2b - single episode remitted: N = 5; 3 - relapsing/remitting illness: N = 18; 4 - severe and persistent illness: N = 7) and 292 controls. A significant overall main effect of clinical stage on peak-to-evening diurnal slope was observed (χ 2 =12.83, p = 0.025), with both the clinical high-risk (β=0.21, 95 % CI: 0.06, 0.36) and first-episode psychosis (β=0.20, 95 % CI: 0.10, 0.31) groups characterised by flatter slopes than controls. The clinical stage groups and controls did not differ on any other cortisol measure. Several sample characteristics were significantly associated with diurnal slope effect sizes, but after accounting for clinical stage, only the association between mean age in cases and wake-to-evening diurnal slope retained significance., Conclusion: Clinical high-risk and first-episode psychosis participants differed from healthy controls in the peak-to-evening diurnal cortisol slope. This measure has not been examined in these populations before, and its potential predictive and prognostic utility for psychotic disorders merits further investigation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Dr Cullen has received consultancy fees from Stratenym Inc and Symmetron Ltd. RMM has received honoraria giving lectures/seminars at meetings supported by Janssen, Lundbeck, Recordati, Otsuka, and Sunovian. Dr Alameda has received honoraria giving a non promotional lecture at a meeting organised by Otsuka-Lundbeck alliance. All other authors have no conflict/competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Heat stress (HS) is one of the main factors associated with welfare concerns during animal transport. The use of infrared thermography (IRT) for digitally monitoring HS in weaned piglets during transportation in a semi-arid region was investigated in the present study. A total of 60 focal piglets (25 ± 2.3 kg) were evaluated across five journeys of standard pigs-weaned loads in Ceará state, Brazil. Upon arrival at the designated farm, the piglets' respiratory rate (RR, breaths/min), rectal temperature (RT, °C), and salivary cortisol concentration (SC, ng/mL) were measured. Furthermore, the piglets' body (BT, °C) and ocular (OT, °C) temperatures were measured using IRT. The load's thermal assessment was monitored for each journey using Temperature-Humidity Index (THI). The correlation between the variables and the thermal images of BT and OT were evaluated using Pearson's coefficient analysis and agreement using Bland-Altman diagrams (P < 0.05). The study revealed a strong positive correlation between BT and OT with the piglets' RT (BT with r = 0.78; OT with r = 0.968) and THI (BT with r = 0.7378; OT with r = 0.8115). Additionally, OT showed a strong positive correlation (r = 0.749), while BT showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.691) with the animals' RR. On the other hand, BT and OT had a low correlation with salivary cortisol. The Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated that the use of IRT exhibited practically no bias (BT = 0.1249 °C and OT = 0.02075 °C) and showed reduced limits of agreement with RT measurements. These results provide evidence that infrared thermography technology can aid technicians and pork transport companies in estimating the physiological condition of heat stress in piglets weaned in a semi-arid region, serving as a mechanism to protect animal welfare., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: None., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Society of Biometeorology.)

Objective: Children with intellectual disability (ID) usually exhibit neuroendocrine functioning impairment, such as alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) neuroendocrine axis, which can result in glucocorticoid cortisol release alterations. Indeed, many studies showed a positive association between ID and cortisol concentration. However, evidence is lacking on the relationship between child neurodevelopment and cortisol levels during adolescence in population-based studies. We aimed to test the association between ID and hair cortisol concentration (HCC) during adolescence in a prospective population-based cohort., Methods: Data from 1770 individuals in the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort were used. ID was diagnosed at age 6 through clinical examination. Hair cortisol was measured at age 15. Association was assessed using linear regression models adjusted for sex, socio-economic factors, hair-related variables and corticosteroid use., Results: Higher HCC were observed in individuals with ID (β: 1.120; 95% CI: 1.012, 1.241) in the analysis adjusted for sex, hair-related variables and corticosteroid use. Compared to the other aetiological groups, this was more evident in idiopathic ID. But this did not remain significant when demographics/socio-economic variables were controlled for., Conclusion: Children with ID, particularly those with idiopathic ID, might exhibit dysfunction in the HPA axis or experience heightened stress levels during adolescence., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons and MENCAP.)

Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is a chronic brain disorder associated with a high risk of relapse and a limited treatment efficacy. Relapses may occur even after long periods of abstinence and are often triggered by stress or cue induced alcohol craving. C-tactile afferents (CT) are cutaneous nerve fibers postulated to encode pleasant affective touch and known to modulate physiological stress responses. However, their translational potential has not yet been explored extensively in controlled clinical trials. This randomized controlled study aimed to investigate the potential of CT stimulation in modulating relapse predicting biomarkers, physiological cue-reactivity, and subjective alcohol craving in AUD patients in early abstinence. Twenty-one participants meeting DSM-5 criteria for mild to moderate AUD received CT-optimal touch or a non-CT-optimal control treatment while exposed to neutral, stress-inducing, and alcohol-related visual stimuli. The tactile treatment was provided with a robotic device, eliminating the social elements of touch. Heart rate variability (HRV), salivary cortisol, and subjective craving were assessed at the baseline, during and after the treatment and stimuli exposure. The results showed that CT-optimal touch significantly reduced alcohol-cue-elicited standard deviation of normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN) HRV compared to the control group, shifting the HRV reactivity to the direction known to indicate lower relapse susceptibility. Cortisol levels showed no significant differences between the groups, and subjective alcohol craving increased after alcohol cue exposure in both groups. This study found that CT-optimal touch modulates autonomic cue-reactivity in AUD patients, encouraging further research on the therapeutic potential of affective touch. Future research should explore the long-term effects and real-world clinical relevance of CT-optimal touch in alcohol relapse prevention., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest JH and PT hold a patent for a mechanism for a CT-optimal haptic device (IPID3248). Other authors have no interests to declear., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Empathic stress is the reproduction of psychological and physiological stress activation in an observer of a directly stressed target individual. It likely allows us to allocate the energy necessary to jointly alleviate a stressor at hand. The tendency to show such an empathic or "second-hand" stress response depends on the relationship between target and observer. Here, we investigated whether adolescents' empathic stress responses to their parents' acute stress experience were associated with the diurnal cortisol covariation the parent-adolescent dyad shared in everyday life. Fathers and mothers (N = 77) were confronted with a standardized laboratory stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test, while their adolescent children (13-16 years old) were watching. In the laboratory, parents and their adolescent children simultaneously provided multiple samples of salivary cortisol. On the weekend following the testing session, dyads provided diurnal cortisol samples over two days. These were used to gain a measure of the dyads' adrenocortical physiological attunement in everyday life. We found that the degree to which dyads covaried in their diurnal cortisol activity significantly increased adolescents' tendency for empathic stress responding in the laboratory. The amount of time that dyads spent together over the weekend, adolescents' attachment experiences, dyad type (father-daughter, mother-daughter, father-son, mother-son), and adolescents' puberty status did not significantly alter this relationship. Adolescent attachment avoidance, however, was negatively correlated with both adolescents' cortisol stress reactivity in the laboratory and the degree to which they covaried with their parents' diurnal cortisol release. We conclude that diurnal cortisol covariation between parents and adolescents is positively associated with stress resonance in the laboratory., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest none., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Inter-individual differences are necessary for selection to act, while plasticity (intra-individual variation) may buffer against selection. Sleep is a critical self-maintenance behaviour but, unlike most behaviours, the causes and consequences of its inter- and intra-individual variation in wild animals is poorly understood, particularly in neonates where sleep plays a key role in development. We have shown previously that free-ranging neonate fallow deer (Dama dama) differ in sleep during the first few weeks of life. Here, we test whether individual variability in sleep is organised systematically across the population, and whether these individual differences are associated with chronic stress measured using hair cortisol, or the timing of birth. Four dimensions of sleep behaviour (total sleep time, sleep fragmentation, sleep quality, and sleep distribution over 24-h) were quantified using state-of-the-art triaxial accelerometers. We then used a multivariate mixed-effects model in a Bayesian framework to evaluate covariation between multiple dimensions of sleep behaviour, and quantify the relative importance of chronic stress and the timing of birth, while accounting for the confounding effects of environmental conditions and age. We found that the timing of birth and chronic stress were not associated with changes in sleep between individuals. While both total sleep time and the number of bouts per day declined with age, their rate of development covaried, but no other sleep dimensions covaried. Our results represent an in-depth analysis of natural variation in sleep, and show that individual differences in four aspects of sleep architecture in free-living fallow deer fawns are strong but independent of one another and unrelated to chronic stress or the timing of birth. We suggest that covariation between sleep dimensions might emerge later in life and effects of cortisol and birth timing might be very short and transient., (© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Animal Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society.)

Background: Intra-oesophageal acid stimulation increases masseter muscle activity. However, the infusion speeds used in previous studies are significantly slow, with minimal acid volume (30 mL over 30 min). Additionally, it is unclear how masseter muscle activity, symptoms of discomfort, stress levels and saliva quantity change over time., Objectives: The time course of masseter muscle activity, heartburn and discomfort symptoms, salivary cortisol concentration to assess stress, autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and saliva quantity under the influence of intra-oesophageal acid infusion were evaluated at a faster injection rate and larger volume than in previous studies., Methods: Ten healthy adults underwent polygraphic monitoring, consisting of electromyography of the masseter muscle and electrocardiography during intra-oesophageal acid infusion (10 mL/min, 10 min). Symptoms of heartburn and discomfort were assessed using the visual analogue scale (VAS), and saliva quantity was measured. Friedman's test was used for multiple comparisons., Results: Masseter muscle activity, VAS scores for heartburn and discomfort, as well as saliva quantity during the 10-min acid infusion, increased significantly compared with that before acid infusion (p < 0.001, 0.001, 0.019 and 0.047, respectively) and decreased 10 and 20 min after acid infusion (p = 0.004, 0.004 and 0.007, respectively). No significant changes were observed in the salivary cortisol concentration or ANS activity., Conclusion: Intra-oesophageal acid infusion stimulated symptoms of heartburn and discomfort and increased masseter muscle activity and saliva production, which may not be related to psychological stress., (© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Oral Rehabilitation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

This study explored the interplay between gastrointestinal nematode burden, blood parameters, and hair cortisol in Zerasca sheep, a local breed of Northeastern Tuscany (Italy). Moreover, the correlation between BCS and Eggs per Gram (EPG) was analyzed to verify the possible parasite impact. The study involved twelve ewes sampled for faeces, blood and wool three times, in the morning, from August 2022 to March 2023. Complete blood count, alanina-aminotransferase, aspartate-aminotransferase, nitrogen ureic, beta-hydroxybutyric acid, non-esterified fatty acids, total proteins, creatinine, calcium, chloride, potassium, and oxygen free radicals were analyzed. Fresh faecal samples were collected and subjected to the Mac Master technique for EPG. Wool was collected to quantify hair cortisol. BCS was recorded using a 1-5 scale. The ANOVA test was performed to detect differences in metabolic and immunological parameters, as well as hair cortisol levels, in relation to EPG levels. Non parametric correlation between EPG and BCS was conducted. Only red blood cells, haematocrit, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, and calcium were significantly associated with EPG levels. Some parameters were outside the normal range. The correlation between BCS and EPG resulted negative and statistically significant. These results showed an overall well-being of the tested animals within this specific context.

The significant prevalence of mental health problems among children and adolescents is a major concern worldwide. The current study evaluates the impact of a year-long, school-based intervention, Flourishing Students, on adolescents' salivary cortisol levels, depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and hope. Utilizing a cluster randomized design with intervention and control classes, 72 students engaged in 32 well-being lessons during academic year 2016-2017, whereas 68 students followed their standard curriculum. Depressive symptoms and psychological well-being were assessed at three time points, while the stress hormone cortisol and hope were measured at two. The results showed a slight increase in cortisol levels from baseline to post-intervention during school hours in the control group, whereas no change occurred in the intervention group. Additionally, total cortisol levels at post-intervention were slightly lower among intervention-group students compared with control group students. Questionnaire data revealed significant interaction effects on psychological well-being and hope from baseline to post-intervention, and on depression and psychological well-being from baseline to the 5-month follow-up. The intervention group scored lower in depressive symptoms and higher in psychological well-being and hope compared with the control group. These findings underscore the essential role of comprehensive assessment methods in evaluating intervention efficacy in well-being programs., (© 2024 International Association of Applied Psychology.)

Background: Psychological stress is linked to elevated salivary cortisol levels, potentially worsening periodontitis by exacerbating inflammation. This study examines the impact of stress on cortisol levels in periodontitis patients, aiming to explore salivary cortisol as a biomarker for disease severity and its role in improving management strategies., Methods: This case-control study, conducted at Dow University of Health Sciences in Karachi from January to December 2022, involved 120 dental clinic patients aged 30-60. Participants were selected based on the presence (cases) or absence (controls) of periodontitis, excluding those with systemic diseases, taking hydrocortisone, immunosuppressives, antidepressants, systemic antibiotics, having oral ulcers and pregnancy or lactation. Periodontal parameters, stress levels (using the Perceived Stress Scale), and morning salivary cortisol (measured via ELISA) were assessed. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 23, including descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, ANOVA, and odds ratio calculations with a 95% confidence interval at 0.05., Results: The study cohort comprised 120 subjects, equally divided between periodontitis patients and healthy controls. Predominantly male (63%) with a mean age of 41.75 years, participants were subjected to comprehensive evaluations. Oral health indices (Gingival index, Plaque index, Clinical attachment loss, Periodontal probing depth, Tooth mobility) and stress markers (Perceived Stress Score, Salivary cortisol levels [SCLs]) were significantly higher in cases compared to controls (p < 0.001). Majority of cases (58.3%) had stage II periodontitis. Notably, cases exhibited significantly higher stress levels (2.05 ± 0.59 vs. 1.38 ± 0.52; p < 0.001) and elevated salivary cortisol levels (6.67 ± 1.64 vs. 2.54 ± 0.88; p < 0.001) compared to controls. The odds ratio (OR) of 3.73 (95% CI [1.75, 7.93], p = 0.0006) indicated that periodontitis patients were over 3.5 times more likely to have elevated SCLs. Stress prevalence was 42.5% in periodontitis patients compared to 18.33% in controls., Conclusions: This study highlights a potential link between stress, cortisol levels, and periodontitis, suggesting that salivary cortisol could be a valuable biomarker. Incorporating cortisol measurements into routine dental evaluations may enable personalized treatment plans, addressing both biological and psychological contributors to periodontitis. Further research is needed to explore the long-term effects of stress on cortisol levels and periodontal disease progression, as well as the role of stress management in managing periodontitis., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethical approval of this study was obtained from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) committee of Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi. (Ref: IRB-2382/DUHS/Approval/2022/758, dated 22nd February, 2022). All participants gave written informed consent. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Disclosure: This article was written from Physiology Thesis of MPhil Scholar Muhammad Owais., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

During stressful conditions, the human body synthesizes catecholamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine and adrenaline, and cortisol. The monitoring of these three molecules levels is crucial for stress management and holds significant medical applications. Here we developed an analytical device that incorporates a biomimetic (tongue-mimic) associated with an optical physico-chemical transducer, able to detect simultaneously cortisol, dopamine and adrenaline in human saliva without pre-treatments, using an array sensor based on fluorescent chemical receptors (BODIPY, Rhodamine, and Naphthylamides) able to interact by non-covalent interaction with cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, leading to a change of the emission. Calibration, recovery and selectivity have been performed to validate the device. In particular, the linear responses of the array to concentration range of 1 pM-1 mM of the three analytes were demonstrated by PLS analysis, as well as the high selectivity by PLS-DA analysis performed with artificial saliva samples. Analyses in real human saliva samples, compared to the validated analytical methods, demonstrated that our prototype represents the first point-of-care device able to quantify these three analytes in human saliva with one single analysis in a wider concentration range respect to the other standard methods., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Competitive lateral flow immunoassay (LFI) is a commonly used platform for detecting cortisol and other small molecules. However, its low sensitivity is a critical limitation for application in point-of-care tests. Thus, various signal enhancement methods have been developed, requiring complex operational steps and specialized detectors. In this study, we propose an automatic signal-enhanced LFI (asLFI), providing 100 times improved colorimetric sensitivity by applying 10,000-fold fewer AuNP conjugates compared to conventional competitive LFI, involving a single operational step. The incorporation of fewer AuNP conjugates improves the sensitivity of competitive LFI but does not produce a visible signal spontaneously. asLFI facilitates automatic signal enhancement without requiring additional operational steps, affording visible colorimetric signals. asLFI demonstrated high sensitivity in detecting cortisol (limit of detection = 3.8 pg mL -1 ) across a detection range of 0.01-10 ng mL -1 with linearity correlation ( R 2 = 0.9159). Furthermore, a strong correlation with ELISA was observed, validating the performance of the asLFI sensor with 18 human saliva samples ( R 2 = 0.9763). This novel asLFI sensor offers simple operation, affording ultrasensitive point-of-care tests for the circadian monitoring of cortisol.

Background: Work-related complaints are often caused by stress and increased mental strain. Support from your immediate boss and colleagues is crucial to buffer against the negative health effects of the psychosocial working environment., Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate if support from the immediate boss and colleagues was associated with biological stress levels, unsafety at work, and other work-related conditions., Methods: Data derives from a subsample of the SCAPIS study, a major Swedish prospective population-based study. In this subsample, a total of N = 5 058 middle-aged persons (50-64 years) from the general population participated; of these, 68.4% ( N = 3 462 individuals) provided hair samples. Questionnaires included socio-demographic and self-reports of occupation, stress, and health status. The demand and control questionnaires were used. A biomarker of long-term stress, hair cortisol concentrations (HCC), was also applied., Results: In this studied cohort, 9.1 % reported a lack of support from their immediate boss, while 90.9% reported that they did get support at work. Significantly more women ( p < 0.001) reported non-support. Those with support or not did not differ in terms of age, education, civil status, smoking, or ethnicity. Those with non-support reported a higher extent ( p < 0.001) of lower perceived health. The risk for hypertension and high cholesterol was increased by 28 %, respectively, 13 % being in the non-support group. The main findings were associations between lack of support and feelings of unsafety at work ( p < 0.001), higher long-term cortisol levels ( p < 0.009), lack of support from colleagues ( p < 0.001), and feelings of dejected/sad ( p < 0.001) and high work pace ( p = 0.03)., Conclusion: Individuals who did not have the necessary support from their immediate boss and colleagues reported they felt more insecure at work and had higher biological long-term stress. In workplace health promotion, an awareness of the link between social support at work and health could be an important component., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Iredahl, Theodorsson, Jones, Faresjö and Faresjö.)

Background: Maternal stress can have short and long term adverse (mental) health effects for the mother and her child. Previous evidence suggests that the gut microbiota may be a potential mediator and moderator for the effects of stress via various pathways. This study explored the maternal microbiota trajectory during pregnancy as well as the association between pre- and postnatal maternal stress and features of the maternal and infant gut microbiota during and after pregnancy. In line with previous research, we hypothesized that maternal stress would be positively related to maternal and infant microbiota volatility and that infants of highly stressed mothers would show a relative increase in Proteobacteria and a relative decrease in Bifidobacterium., Methods: We collected maternal stool samples at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy and 8 months postpartum. Infant stools samples were obtained at 2, 6 and 12 weeks and 8 months postpartum. All samples were analyzed using shotgun metagenome sequencing. We also collected several measures of maternal stress (self-reported depression, anxiety, and stress, and hair cortisol and cortisone), most at the same time points as the microbiota samples., Results: Our data indicated that the maternal microbiota does not undergo drastic changes from the second to the third trimester of pregnancy but that the postpartum microbiota differs significantly from the prenatal microbiota. Furthermore, we identified associations between several stress measures and maternal and infant gut microbiota features at different time points including positive and negative associations with alpha diversity, beta diversity and individual microbial phyla and species relative abundances. Also, the maternal stress composite score, the perceived stress score and the log-ratio of hair cortisol and cortisone were all positively associated with infant microbiota volatility., Conclusion: Our study provides evidence that maternal prenatal and postnatal stress is related to both the maternal and the infant microbiota. Collectively, this and previous studies indicate that maternal stress does not uniformly associate with most gut microbial features. Instead, the associations are highly time point specific. Regarding infant microbiota volatility, we have consistently found a positive association between stress and infant microbiota volatility. This warrants future research investigating this link in more depth., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The author Carolina de Weerth is an Editorial Board Member for Psychneuroendocrinology and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. The authors declare the following financial interests: this work was supported by the Dutch National Science Organisation (NWO) VICI grant (016.Vici. 185.038) received by C.dW. The funder had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the report or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The stress response maintains the homeostasis of the body's internal environment and normal physiological activities, involving several neuroendocrine systems, such as the HPA axis, the HPG axis, the endocannabinoid system, and the melatonin system. However, studies on the intricate interactions among the four neuroendocrine systems are lacking, and it is not clear how these interactions are affected by demographic variables. The aim of this study was to investigate the network characteristics of hormonal networks comprising nine hormones from four neuroendocrine systems and how they were affected by demographic variables., Methods: 252 healthy current students were recruited from Southeast University, China. The concentrations of nine hormones in their hair were measured by LC/MS methods, and hormonal network was constructed. Network analysis was used to characterize the interrelationships between hormones or neuroendocrine systems, central hormones, bridge hormones, hormonal network characteristics, and their changes in response to demographic variables., Results: Complex interactions between the HPA axis, the HPG axis, the ECS and the melatonin system formed a sparse and stable network, with cortisol and cortisone being the central hormones and melatonin as the bridge hormone. Demographic variables did not affect the overall characteristics of the network or the central hormone, but a number of specific connections in the network changed and the bridge hormones became cortisone and progesterone., Conclusion: The interactions between the four stress-related neuroendocrine systems were relatively stable and were centered and initiated by the HPA axis. Demographic variables did not affect the overall structure of the network, but influenced local features of the network, such as edge weights and bridge centrality., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Endogenous steroid hormone assessment is essential for clinical practice. These hormones are typically measured in blood. More recently, measurement of steroids in hair samples has been gaining in popularity, so we have reviewed the methodologies used for this to-date., Methods: Ovid Medline, CINAHL, Psychinfo, and EMBASE were searched to identify manuscripts that analysed cortisol, testosterone, androstenedione, 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS), and/or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), in hair or fur. Data related to sampling and measurement procedures were extracted and analysed., Results: The systematic review included a total of 180 papers, with 82 % published in the past 8 years; 67 % were human and 33 % animal studies. Cortisol was by far the most common analyte. Incomplete reporting on sample harvest, preparation, and measurement procedures was common. Typically, samples were collected from posterior vertex of humans or back/neck of animals, weighing between 11 and 50 mg (with a range of 1.25-1000 mg). Samples were usually stored at room temperature, often using aluminium foil. Isopropanol was the most common cleaning solution. Hair was normally powdered or segmented prior to extraction. Extraction was typically carried out over 18-24 hours using methanol. Validation and precision information was provided in 47 % of studies., Conclusions: This systematic review highlights the lack of standardisation in the analysis of endogenous steroids in hair. Reporting was typically incomplete, and assay validations were partial or absent. Together, these limit the value of these exciting new methods and hold back transition to clinical use., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Authors have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The COVID-19 pandemic led to increased internalizing symptoms (IS) among adults, with notable interindividual differences. Cross-sectional studies suggest that both biological (physiological stress) and psychological (socio-emotional) factors independently contribute to IS. This longitudinal study examined whether physiological stress during the pandemic moderated the relationship between socio-emotional vulnerability and IS. In June 2020, 94 adults (average age 34.16, SD = 8.86) provided a 6 cm hair sample, allowing the quantification of cumulative hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) during the three months preceding the pandemic (Segment A) and the three months of the first wave of the pandemic in Quebec, Canada (Segment B). We calculated HCC reactivity (rHCC) as the percent change between the two segments. A socio-emotional composite score (SECS) was derived using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, and Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire. Every three months from June 2020 to March 2021, participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales and Impact of Event Scale. Analyses revealed an interaction between Time, SECS, and rHCC on stress, and between SECS and rHCC on depressive symptoms. High rHCC was associated with a stronger correlation between SECS and stress symptoms in September and December 2020 (these months were significant transition periods during the pandemic in Quebec). Additionally, individuals with low rHCC exhibited greater depressive symptoms, regardless of time. Our findings suggest that the activation of the physiological stress system at the beginning of the pandemic was associated with increased stress symptoms during subsequent transition periods. Conversely, lower activation of the stress system contributed to greater depressive symptoms over time, particularly in individuals with heightened socio-emotional vulnerability. This highlights the role of physiological responses in modulating emotional outcomes under prolonged stress and adds to the growing literature on vulnerability factors in response to enduring stressors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In the present study, we aimed to investigate how acute stress exerts its heterogeneous effects. Based on biophysical network models, we hypothesized that acute stress would improve occipital-mediated ultra-short-term and to a lesser degree affect occipital- and frontal-mediated short-term and working, and impairs hippocampal-mediated long-term memory processes and their respective behavioral measures. To test this, 111 healthy individuals (57 female) underwent both the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and a control test. Immediately afterward, participants' performance was measured in four memory tasks (Rapid Serial Visual Presentation, RSVP, Match-to-Sample, MTS, N-Back, NB and Free-Recall, FR tasks). TSST exposure seems to impair long-term memory (AC FR ; β = -1.50 ± 0.62; when free recall was tested approx. 80 minutes after initial encoding, immediately after the TSST), and working memory (AC NB ; β= -0.42 ± 0.20 %) but did not affect ultra-short-term (AC RSVP ; β = -0.03 ± 0.31 %) and short-term (AC MTS ; β=-0.18 ± 0.31 %) memory accuracies (ACs). Interestingly, TSST exposure increased the exploratory included measure of response times in MTS (RT MTS ; β =16.42 ± 7.18 msec) and impaired T1 detection in the RSVP (AC T1 ; β=-0.48 ± 0.22 %) tasks. Contrary to the hypothesis, TSST exposure did not have the hypothesized effects on the memory processes. Instead, TSST exposure appeared to affect secondary behavioral indicators of motivation or task instruction adherence., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Maternal stress is associated with negative early-life development and (mental)health outcomes. There is recent evidence that maternal stress in the postpartum period impacts the nutrient composition of human milk (HM). However, it is currently not known whether maternal stress is associated with changes in the HM microbiome during the critical early postpartum period., Methods: In this prospective observational cohort study, lactating women were recruited into a high-stress (HS, n = 23) and control (CTL, n = 69) group. The HS group included mothers with infants hospitalized for at least two days. Maternal stress was assessed using validated questionnaires and cortisol concentrations in hair, saliva and HM. HM was collected at days 10 and 24 and its microbiome was analyzed using 16 s rRNA sequencing. HM bacterial composition was compared between study groups and their correlation with maternal stress levels, maternal characteristics and infant outcomes was determined., Results: HM microbiome β-diversity differed significantly between study groups, with HS mothers displaying decreased abundance of Streptococcus, Gemella, and Veillonella, and increased levels of Staphylococcus, Corynebacterium and Acinetobacter compared to the control group. While the strongest correlation of β-diversity was with stress, HM microbiome β-diversity also correlated significantly with maternal education level and infant sex. No correlation between HM microbiome composition and HM cortisol concentrations was found., Conclusions: This study demonstrates stress-associated alterations in the early HM microbiome that could potentially contribute to early gut colonization and subsequent (mental)health outcomes. Future research is needed to elucidate the physiological significance of these changes for infant development and health., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In commercial dairy farming, the majority of cows are dehorned or genetically hornless. It is argued that this reduces the risk of injurious and stressful social conflicts. On the other hand, in horned herds, management and housing may be better adapted to the cows, e.g. by avoiding changes in herd structure or by providing more space and resources, which would contribute to reducing stress. This cross-sectional study with 12 horned and 13 hornless organic dairy herds in loose housing aimed to explore the effect of horn status on faecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) as an indicator for the cows' stress level while taking into account possible differences in the farms' compliance with management and housing recommendations for reducing social conflicts. Repeated faecal samples were collected from 674 cows (n = 2 625 samples), and FCMs were analysed by enzyme immunoassay. A total of 22 housing and management factors relating to guideline recommendations were recorded. Each factor was categorised as compliant, partly compliant, or non-compliant, and percentages of housing, management, and overall compliance were calculated. There was a wide variation in overall compliance between farms, ranging from 20 to 93%. Housing and management compliance correlated positively (r s  = 0.62) and farms with horned cows complied with more recommendations (median: 60 vs 48%). A linear mixed model was calculated with the fixed effects of horn status, overall compliance, and their interaction. Cow was nested within herd as a random effect, and days in milk and time of sampling were included as covariates. FCM levels were not higher in horned compared to hornless herds. However, contrary to expectations, no associations with compliance were found. More knowledge is needed about the extent to which FCM levels reflect social stress and whether individual housing or management factors may be particularly important in reducing stress., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study aims to explore the potential biomarker application of salivary heat shock 70 kDa protein in detecting thermal stress in dairy animals noninvasively. The study spans for 45 days during the mid-summer season (April-May), involving twelve multiparous non-pregnant adult Jersey crossbred cows by randomly allocating them into groups (six animals in each group). The control animals were maintained in the shed, whereas the thermal stress group animals were exposed to environment heat between 10:00 h to 16.00 h and they were feed and watered ad libitum. During the experimental period, the hematobiochemical, physiological, behavioural, nutritional and production responses were recorded and the whole blood and saliva were collected fortnightly. Results revealed significant increase in WBC, AST, ALP, blood urea nitrogen, triglycerides, cholesterol, HDL, blood and salivary cortisol, respiratory rate, rectal temperature, skin temperature of neck, lumbar and forelimb regions, standing time, salivary and blood HSP70 mRNA expression and their protein concentrations in heat stressed animals. In addition, RBC, haemoglobin, MCV, PCV, platelet, platelet-large cell ratio (PLCR), lying time, feed intake, milk yield and rumination time were significantly decreased in thermally stress animals. Furthermore, ROC curve analysis revealed the biomarker potential of these significantly altered parameters with 100% sensitivity and specificity for predicting environmental heat stress in dairy cows with AUC and Youden's - index of 1.00 except platelet. Moreover, salivary HSP70 demonstrated significant correlation with these biomarkers. Noteworthily, salivary HSP70 also exhibited strong association with blood HSP70 and salivary cortisol. Furthermore, salivary HSP70 revealed 100% sensitivity and specificity in discriminating the dairy cattle succumbed to heat stress from healthy. In conclusion, the present study provides a newer insight into the multifaceted roles of HSP70 and identified salivary heat shock 70 kDa protein as a potential, reliable and more sensitive non-invasive biomarker for identifying environmental heat stress in dairy cattle., Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (© 2024. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to International Society of Biometeorology.)

This pre-registered study examines the longitudinal relationships between well-being, hair cortisol (a biomarker linked to poor health), and self-reported health. Accumulated cortisol output over three months was determined quarterly over the course of one year using hair samples. Well-being was assessed as affective well-being (via experience sampling), cognitive well-being (i.e., life satisfaction), and eudaimonic well-being (via the Ryff Scales of Psychological Well-Being). Self-reported health was measured using one item on the current state of health. The longitudinal analyses allowed for disentangling initial between-person differences from within-person changes and were based on a large panel study of working-age people (N = 726). The results indicate that hair cortisol levels were generally not associated with any of the examined well-being facets, regardless of the level of analysis. Further, deviations from well-being trait levels were not linked to subsequent within-person changes in hair cortisol (and vice versa), challenging the notion that cortisol output is a key physiological pathway through which well-being improves health. In contrast, self-reported health was positively correlated with affective, cognitive, and eudaimonic well-being at both the trait and within-person levels, whereas deviations from well-being trait levels were generally not associated with subsequent within-person changes in self-reported health, and vice versa., (© 2024 The Author(s). Applied Psychology: Health and Well‐Being published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Association of Applied Psychology.)

Objective: Emotion dysregulation plays a central role in the etiology and maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Individual differences in physiological responses to emotionally evocative events may influence the strength of this association. The objective of this study was to test whether cortisol reactivity following idiographic emotion induction tasks moderated the relation between emotion dysregulation and PTSS severity., Method: Participants were 94 community women currently experiencing intimate partner violence and using substances (age: M = 40.5 years; 35.2% Black; 61.5% unemployed). PTSS severity was assessed at baseline via a clinician-administered diagnostic interview. Participants provided a self-report of emotion dysregulation at baseline. Samples of salivary cortisol were collected pre-, during, and postidiographic emotion inductions during an experimental session., Results: A significant emotion dysregulation by cortisol reactivity interaction was found ( b = 0.18, p = .02). Emotion dysregulation was related to PTSS severity for those with high ( b = 0.13, p < .001), but not low ( b = -0.001, p = .99), levels of cortisol reactivity following idiographic emotion inductions., Conclusions: Findings provide novel evidence of the interplay of emotion dysregulation and cortisol reactivity, an indicator of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system axis stress reactivity, following emotionally evocative stimuli in relation to PTSS severity. Information from this study may help to identify individuals who are at highest risk of more severe PTSS. Future work is needed to replicate findings among diverse populations impacted by trauma (e.g., veterans, men). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) raised under natural conditions can show their complete behavioural repertoire. However, rooting behaviour can have a great impact on the environment. In the context of the promotion of farm animal welfare and environmental concerns, this study investigated the potential of nose-clips as a less invasive alternative to nose-rings for the management of rooting behaviour of free-ranging pigs. We collected behavioural data and salivary cortisol levels on two groups: an experimental group (n = 17) with nose-clips and a control group (n = 17) without nose-clips. After the nose-clipping, we observed a temporary increase in anxiety-related behaviour and cortisol levels during the 1st week, followed by a return to pre-application levels in the following weeks. We found a temporary decrease in affiliative interactions involving the nose during the 1st week after the application of nose-clips, whereas no differences in affiliative interactions without nose contact and aggression levels were observed. Moreover, nose-clips effectively reduced destructive excavation behaviours, without leading to a simultaneous increase in other exploratory behaviours. In conclusion, our findings show that nose-clips could be a solution that mitigates destructive rooting while preserving social interactions and animal welfare. Further research is essential to consolidate these findings and assess the long-term implications of this approach., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Scale cortisol concentration (SCC) is increasingly applied as a biomarker of chronic stress in fish, but knowledge gaps remain on how SCC is affected by the sampling season and method of fish capture, the time since sample collection, and the cortisol extraction protocol. Here, working with three freshwater fishes (common carp Cyprinus carpio, European chub Squalius cephalus and Northern pike Esox lucius), a robust extraction protocol was developed and then applied to identifying how scale cortisol levels can vary in fish populations according to aspects of the fish capture events. Across five scale cortisol extraction protocols, three provided relatively low yields, so their application would result in erroneously low SCC. Application of the extraction protocol providing the highest yields to scale samples indicated that fish sampled in winter have significantly lower SCC than those collected in spring and summer, while fish captured by angling have significantly lower SCC than fish collected from the same population by electric fishing. There were no significant differences in SCC measured from populations across 40 years, suggesting that archived scales potentially provide a valuable resource for measuring temporal changes in SCC. Future studies based on using scale cortisol for analyses of fish chronic stress should consider these issues in their study designs and evaluations to ensure measured differences in cortisol across time and space are due to differences in how the fish are responding to their environment rather than being an artefact of study design., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Prenatal maternal psychological distress and physiological stress (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] activity) can negative impact early child development. Research rarely examines the combined or interactive role of prenatal perceived stress and HPA activity on child outcomes. The current longitudinal study examined how prenatal distress and HPA activity impacted child socioemotional functioning from age 1-3. This sample (n=148) was followed from pregnancy, 15-, 24- and 35-months postpartum. During pregnancy, mothers reported their levels of perceived stress and hair samples were collected, reflecting cortisol secretion in the past 3 months. At each postpartum timepoint, mothers reported toddler socioemotional functioning using the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment. Multivariate regression results indicated that higher maternal perceived stress interacted with higher hair cortisol levels in association with greater socioemotional problems at 15 and 24 months. In addition, there was a main effect of higher prenatal perceived stress in relation to greater socioemotional problems at 36 months. Exploratory sex-specific moderation analyses indicated that sex interacted with hair cortisol, such that higher levels of prenatal cortisol were associated greater behaviour problems and lower socioemotional competence for females compared to males at 24-months. Findings indicated the importance of examining both physiological stress and psychological stress in pregnancy, as they interact to impact child socioemotional development. Findings also highlight sex-specific prenatal effects., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Pregnancy is often typified with a decrease in sleep quality, which for many women, progressively worsens across gestation and into the postpartum. A mechanism linking poor sleep with certain adverse pregnancy outcomes is dysregulation of the HPA axis resulting in atypically elevated cortisol production. While total cortisol output normally increases across pregnancy, the cortisol awakening response (CAR), a response to waking up, is influenced by factors such as stress and mood. It attenuates as pregnancy progresses, with normalization in the first weeks after delivery. The goals of the present study were to (1) assess the temporal relationship between sleep quality and cortisol indices across the perinatal period; (2) evaluate whether sleep quality was associated with postpartum mood; and (3) assess whether cortisol mediated these associations., Method: Data were collected as part of the Healthy Babies Before Birth (HB3) study. Sleep quality, depressive and anxiety symptoms, and cortisol from four time-points (8-16 weeks gestation, 30-36 weeks gestation, 6 months postpartum, and 1-year postpartum) were assessed. Participants (N = 223) who had sleep quality (PSQI) and cortisol data from at least 1 of 4 time-points were included in analyses. Three salivary cortisol indices were calculated: cortisol awakening response (CAR), diurnal slope, and area under the curve (AUC). Multi-level models were run to predict cortisol parameters based on deviations and typical maternal sleep quality at each wave as well as mood outcomes., Results: Multilevel (time, wave, and person) modeling indicated that sleep quality was not associated with any of the cortisol indices, and none significantly varied across time. However, when PSQI scores were higher than the woman's own mean sleep quality, the CAR slope was steeper (+1 point in PSQI, γ=0.18), and when PSQI scores were lower than mean, the CAR slope was flatter (-1 point, γ=0.11). Poorer sleep quality was associated with greater depression severity (γ = 0.367) and anxiety symptoms (γ = 0.120). Cortisol did not mediate the relationship between sleep quality and depression symptoms., Discussion: Increases in PSQI scores, but not higher mean PSQI scores, were associated with a larger CAR. There was no association between sleep quality and the diurnal slope or AUC. These data suggest that variability in sleep quality is significantly associated with the amount of cortisol secreted upon awakening., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None of the authors have anything to declare, (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Hair steroid analysis is increasingly recognized for its ability to capture cumulative hormone secretion, thought to reflect an individual's response to long-term environmental conditions. Despite its growing use, the influence of single, isolated events on hair steroid concentrations remains underexplored. Our study therefore examined the effects of a single-dose transdermal testosterone administration (150 mg) and acute laboratory stress induction on hair testosterone and cortisol levels in a randomized, between-subject, placebo-controlled, and double-blind design. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis revealed a significant increase in hair testosterone levels seven weeks post-testosterone administration, underscoring the efficacy of hair analysis in detecting single-use hormone intake. Moreover, we observed a significant elevation in hair cortisol levels seven weeks post-exposure to the laboratory somatic stressor (Cold pressor test), highlighting the efficacy of hair analysis in capturing experimentally induced hormonal responses. The exploration of contextual factors revealed that individuals in committed relationships exhibited lower levels of both hair cortisol and testosterone compared to those who were single or in uncommitted relationships. Our study provides new insights into the sensitivity of hair analysis for detecting hormonal changes following single-dose hormone administration and experimentally induced short-term stress events. The exploratory findings emphasize the importance of individual contextual factors in influencing hair hormone concentrations and lay the groundwork for further investigation into the dynamics of cumulative hair hormone measurements., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Our study proposes to examine how stress and emotion recognition interact with a history of maltreatment to influence sensitive parenting behaviors. A sample of 58 mothers and their children aged between 2 and 5 years old were recruited. Parents' history of maltreatment was measured using the Child Trauma Questionnaire. An emotion recognition task was performed. Mothers identified the dominant emotion in morphed facial emotion expressions in children. Mothers and children interacted for 15 minutes. Salivary cortisol levels of mothers were collected before and after the interaction. Maternal sensitive behaviors were coded during the interaction using the Coding Interactive Behavior scheme. Results indicate that the severity of childhood maltreatment is related to less sensitive behaviors for mothers with average to good abilities in emotion recognition and lower to average increases in cortisol levels following an interaction with their children. For mothers with higher cortisol levels, there is no association between a history of maltreatment and sensitive behaviors, indicating that higher stress reactivity could act as a protective factor. Our study highlights the complex interaction between individual characteristics and environmental factors when it comes to parenting. These results argue for targeted interventions that address personal trauma.

Objectives: To characterize individuals with a diminished salivary cortisol response to mental stress, assess its association with all-cause mortality, and quantify the mediating effects of the most relevant and modifiable factors to identify potential target for prevention., Methods: Data from MIDUS II study with a 16-year follow-up, were used to categorize 1129 participants as responders or non-responders based on the existence of increase in salivary cortisol under mental stress. LASSO-logistics analysis identified the most relevant factors. Cox regression models and restricted cubic splines evaluated the prognostic impact. Further analyses examined the mediating effects of identified factors on prognosis., Results: After employing Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting to adjust for demographic differences between groups, individuals with diminished cortisol responses were found to have higher levels of depressive symptoms (p = 0.050), increased inflammation (IL-6, 2.30 [1.41, 3.79] vs. 1.96[1.33, 3.31], p = 0.011), and were less likely to regularly exercise (74.3 % vs. 79.9 %, p = 0.030). IL-6 (OR: 1.25 [1.04, 1.52]，p = 0.021) and regularly exercising (OR 0.71 [0.51, 0.97], p = 0.032) emerged as significant modifiable factors in multivariate analysis. A notable prognostic association of diminished cortisol response with all-cause mortality (HR = 1.33 [1.01-1.76], p = 0.046) was observed, consistent across various subgroups and supported by non-linear model analysis. Approximately 13 % of the mortality risk associated with diminished cortisol response was mediated by increased IL-6 levels (p = 0.043)., Conclusion: Diminished salivary cortisol response is linked to an increased risk of all-cause mortality, significantly mediated by elevated IL-6. This study offers a new perspective on prognostic prediction while highlighting potential avenues for intervention., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Han Yin reports statistical analysis was provided by Shenzhen People's Hospital. Qingshan Geng reports a relationship with Peking University Shenzhen Hospital that includes: non-financial support. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Experiencing major life stressors is associated with negative health outcomes, yet the mechanisms are not fully understood. Major stressors are threatening, discrete events that can have lingering consequences on emotional and cognitive processes. This can lead to maladaptive coping strategies, such as rumination, that compromise the ability to handle subsequent stressors and disrupt the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response. Based on the Perseverative Cognition Hypothesis, it was hypothesized that greater exposure to major stressors would be associated with greater rumination during a laboratory stressor, which, in turn, would predict higher cortisol reactivity and peak and delayed recovery. Participants were 211 healthy adults (M age = 30.2, SD = 10.9, range = 18 - 55) who underwent the Trier Social Stress Test and self-reported rates of major stressors in the past 12 months and stress-related state rumination. Two-piece growth curve modeling with landmark registration was used to calculate peak salivary cortisol levels along with cortisol reactivity and recovery slopes to capture individual differences in the trajectory of cortisol response. Results showed that state rumination significantly mediated the link between more major stressors and elevated peak cortisol levels as well as steeper reactivity and recovery slopes. Interpersonal stressors and non-interpersonal stressors showed similar associations to cortisol response via state rumination. This study enhances our understanding of how stress contributes to HPA axis dysregulation by connecting major stressors with acute stressors, pointing at stress-induced rumination as a plausible mechanism., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Acute psychosocial stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and triggers the release of cortisol, a commonly used biomarker of stress reactivity. Yet only 25 % of studies have reported a correlation between cortisol and affective responses to stress. This study aimed to examine whether cortisol reactivity following an acute psychosocial stressor in the laboratory correlated with concurrent positive and negative affect in adolescents, and whether early life adversity (ELA) moderated this relationship., Methods: The current study examined the salivary cortisol response of 89 adolescents (46.1 % female) following administration of the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). Using 7 simultaneous measurements, changes in cortisol were compared to changes in concurrent affect using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Parents reported their child's exposure to ELA., Results: Within-person variability in cortisol was associated with higher negative affect at baseline, b = 1.43 (SE =.41), p < .001, as well as more rapid negative affective recovery following stress, b = -0.003 (SE =.002), p = .04. ELA-exposed participants were not more sensitive to this effect. Within-person variability in cortisol was not associated with positive affect at baseline or following the TSST-C on average, all ps > .27. However, within-person increases in cortisol were associated with decrements in positive affect among ELA-exposed individuals, all ps < .01, suggesting differential sensitivity to anhedonic effects of glucocorticoids., Conclusions: Stress impacts affective states, in part through acute increases in HPA axis activity. The present data show that negative affect is more vulnerable to this than positive affect among adolescents. Further, adolescents with high ELA may be more vulnerable to decrements in positive affect in the acute aftermath of HPA axis activation. Whether this is a modifiable source of vulnerability to stress-related disease in this high-risk population remains to be understood., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest none, (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Parental attachment figures effectively buffer their children's cortisol responses to a socially evaluative stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), by providing instrumental and emotional support during the preparation period. The effectiveness of parents as stress buffers wanes in adolescence as youth increase their reliance on peers for support. Yet, in a previous study, when peers played the same supportive role as parents, the cortisol response to the TSST was amplified. Here we asked if the role the friend plays matters. We hypothesized that the support of a friend would reduce the cortisol response to the TSST if they were also undergoing the stressor; while friend support would increase the cortisol response if they were only there for support and were not also undergoing the stressor., Method: 235 youth ages 11.2-15.1 years were tested in the TSST-OL, an on-line version of the TSST task. Saliva samples were obtained for cortisol determination at multiple timepoints. In this pre-registered study, youth were randomly assigned, stratified by age, sex assigned at birth and pubertal status (early/later), to one of the following conditions: 1) Alone, 2) Unfamiliar Peer - Both Tested, 3) Friend as Supporter, 4) Friend - Both Tested., Results: Area under the curve from intercept (AUCi) for the initial reactivity phase was significantly different by group, matching our pre-registered prediction that friend support would reduce reactivity if both friends were undergoing the stressor, but increase it if the friend providing support did not also undergo the stressor. Recovery did not differ by condition., Conclusions: The effect of friends as stress buffers varies by the role the friend plays. In the case of the TSST, a social evaluative stressor, support from a friend buffers cortisol reactivity if the friend is also experiencing the stressor; but increases cortisol reactivity if they are just there as a support. Simply being with a supportive friend does not shield the adolescent from reacting with a neuroendocrine stress response to the stress of social evaluation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest Declaration of interest for submission of the article “Share-the-load vs bring-your-own judge: The effects of friends on social evaluative stress in early adolescence”., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death among transgender women and people with HIV. Exogenous estrogen and psychosocial stressors are known risk factors for CVD. Yet, few studies have used biomarkers to examine the role of stress in CVD risk among transgender women with HIV (TWHIV). This analysis examined whether stress moderates relationships between gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) duration and CVD risk among TWHIV., Methods: This cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from an observational cohort of 108 Black and Latina TWHIV in Boston, New York, and Washington, DC, enrolled December 2020 to June 2022, measured sociodemographics, medical diagnoses, medications, smoking history, and perceived stress via interviewer-administered surveys. Physiological stress was measured with 14 biomarkers to calculate allostatic load indices (ALI). Forty participants provided saliva samples used to calculate cortisol awakening response and cortisol daily decline. The 2018 American College of Cardiology Revised Pooled Cohort Equation estimated 10-year CVD risk. Data were analyzed in 2024., Results: GAHT duration was positively associated with CVD risk scores in bivariate regression. In multivariable linear regression models (adjusting for age, income, education), only age and ALI remained significantly associated with CVD risk scores (β 1.13, CI: 1.05, 1.21). No stress measure significantly interacted with GAHT duration to affect CVD risk scores. In visual plots, GAHT duration increased CVD risk scores only for TWHIV experiencing the highest ALI., Conclusions: Stress plays an important role in CVD in TWHIV. More research is needed on non-GAHT factors, which influence CVD health among transgender women., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a strategy for inducing acute psychological stress and increases in glucocorticoid levels. Here we describe the methodology and implementation of a Semi-Virtual Trier Social Stress Test (SV-TSST) which combines the control of a laboratory environment with reduced need for in-person logistical support and enhanced social distancing without the need for specialized equipment. During the SV-TSST, the participant is guided through the baseline, anticipatory, challenge, and recovery phases of the test by an in-person experimenter. Confederate judges involved in the challenge phase of the protocol connect with the participant via live video teleconference. Fifty-five healthy male and female participants aged 18-25 completed measures of self-report stress and provided saliva samples for cortisol assay throughout the SV-TSST session. The SV-TSST protocol was found to induce a significant acute increase in subjective psychological stress and salivary cortisol, with elevated psychological stress in SV-TSST female compared to male participants. Results indicate that the SV-TSST can be implemented as protocol for acute stress induction in a within-subject design that can serve as an alternative to classic, virtual, and virtual reality adaptations of this methodology., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None, (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Animal welfare is integral to sustainable livestock production, and pasture access for cattle is known to enhance welfare. Despite positive welfare impacts, high labour requirements hinder the adoption of sustainable grazing practices such as rotational stocking management. Virtual fencing (VF) is an innovative technology for simplified, less laborious grazing management and remote animal monitoring, potentially facilitating the expansion of sustainable livestock production. VF uses Global Navigation Satellite System technology, wireless communication, and stimuli (auditory and electrical) to manage livestock movements and contain animals without physical barriers. Training animals to associate the auditory cue with the subsequent aversive stimulus enables effective livestock containment without physical barriers. While previous studies have largely dispelled concerns about adverse effects on cattle behaviour associated with the use of VF collars, there is limited knowledge regarding the impacts on animal physiology, particularly in rotational stocking systems. Addressing this knowledge gap, this study investigated differences in diet digestibility, livestock performance, and stress response of beef heifers on pastures using a VF compared to a physical electric fence. The study was conducted over 8 weeks, subdivided into two grazing cycles, with 32 heifers in four groups. Each experimental pasture was subdivided into four paddocks. The study monitored the interaction with the VF by analysing the temporal development of the ratio of auditory and electrical cues (success ratio and confidence ratio) emitted by the collars. Additionally, the grassland herbage quality, BW gain, and concentrations of faecal cortisol metabolites (FCMs) were assessed, as well as the time required for animals to cross into a new paddock. VF success ratios increased in the second grazing cycle, reflecting enhanced adaptation over time. Similarly, the reduction in time taken to cross into new paddocks in the VF groups indicated that animals learned to interact with the VF and rely on the auditory cues for directing movements. The absence of a significant effect of the fencing system on FCMs suggested that stress was unrelated to the VF technology. Further, animal performance was not affected as indicated by similar BW gains under both fencing systems. This study also attempts to establish a benchmark threshold for successful responses to the auditory cues, allowing comparative evaluation of VF systems. Overall, under rotational grazing, VF did not adversely impact animal welfare or performance compared to physical fencing, opening avenues for further exploration of VF technology in diverse grazing conditions., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Maternal capabilities to engage in sensitive caregiving are important for infant development and mother-infant-interaction, however, can be negatively affected by cortisol due to a stress response. Previous research suggested that cortisol possibly impairs cognitive functions important for caregiving behavior, which potentially leads to less maternal sensitivity. However, studies investigating the influence of cortisol using endocrine parameters on the mother-infant-interaction during the early postpartum are lacking. In the current study, fifty-nine mother-infant-dyads participated in a laboratory face-to-face still-face (FFSF) observation when infants were 4 months of age. Maternal and infant positive, negative and matched behavior during the FFSF was microanalytically coded. Cortisol concentrations were obtained using hair and saliva samples. For salivary cortisol, the area under the curve with respect to ground (AUC G ) was calculated using two saliva samples obtained after arrival and after the FFSF. Multiple block-wise hierarchical linear regression models were conducted to incorporate potential confounding factors (maternal age, parity, infant gestational age, infant sex) in a first step and, then, test for the association of hair and salivary cortisol with maternal and infant positive, negative and dyadic behavior in a second step. For both it was hypothesized that cortisol assessed in hair and saliva is negatively associated with positive and matched mother-infant-interaction, and positively associated with negative mother-infant-interaction. It could be shown that salivary but not hair cortisol as well as infant gestational age and infant sex related significantly to infant positive and negative affect as well as matched behavior during the reunion phase of the FFSF. Maternal positive affect was unrelated to any of the variables. The results are discussed in regard to the importance of maternal cortisol levels over a longer period of time and more acute situational levels for the mother-infant-interaction as well as the relevance of included confounding factors., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that there is no competing interest., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Theories highlight the important role of chronic stress in remodeling HPA-axis responsivity under stress. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is one of the most widely used measures of enduring stress perceptions, and no previous studies have evaluated whether greater perceptions of stress on the PSS are associated with cortisol hypo- or hyperactivity responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)., Objective: To examine if high perceived stress over the past month, as measured by the PSS, alters cortisol and subjective acute stress reactivity to the TSST in healthy young adults., Methods: Five studies across three laboratories involving healthy young adults (N = 585) were conducted. Participants were exposed to the TSST, and cortisol levels and subjective stress responses were measured. Studies 1-2 served as exploratory, and Studies 3-5 as explanatory, with pre-registered hypotheses., Results: Higher PSS scores were consistently associated with greater acute subjective stress perceptions during the TSST across four out of five studies. Meta-analytic results revealed that higher perceived stress on the PSS was associated with blunted cortisol reactivity to the TSST. This cortisol hyporeactivity effect was more pronounced in studies using a combined speech and arithmetic TSST protocol compared to a speech-only protocol. Depressive symptoms did not significantly alter cortisol reactivity effects in these studies., Conclusion: Persistent high perceived stress over the past month may be associated with greater acute stress perceptions and blunted cortisol reactivity to the TSST. These findings highlight the potential importance of persistent perceived stress in HPA-axis responses to acute stress in healthy young adults, with potential implications for understanding stress-related health risks. Further research is needed to explore the underlying mechanisms and extend findings to diverse populations., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest JDC is the Chief of Science at Equa Health, Inc, but otherwise the authors have no competing or conflicts of interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Burnout is a growing problem in high-performance sport and has negative consequences for athletes (e.g., mental ill-health). It is therefore important to effectively monitor athlete burnout to aid intervention efforts. While self-report measures are available (e.g., athlete burnout questionnaire), the limitations associated with these measures (e.g., social desirability bias) means that objective physiological markers may also be useful. Thus, this article critically discusses potential biomarkers of athlete burnout, drawing on research inside and outside of sport to offer an overview of the current state-of-the-art in this research area. First, it outlines what athlete burnout is, its deleterious consequences, and discusses existing psychological assessments. The article then critically discusses literature on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (e.g., salivary cortisol) and autonomic nervous system (e.g., heart rate variability) indices of burnout, highlighting some promising biomarkers for future research (e.g., salivary cortisol at bedtime, vagally-mediated heart rate variability at rest). Finally, the article concludes by highlighting key considerations and offering recommendations for future research (e.g., use of more homogenous methods in assessing burnout and physiological parameters). As a result, the intention of this article is to spark more higher quality research on the psychophysiology of athlete burnout, thereby helping tackle this prominent issue in high-performance sport., Competing Interests: Dr Isoard-Gautheur and Professor Gustafsson have no conflicts of interest to declare relevant to the content of this article. Although Dr Moore wrote this article while on secondment with an organisation interested in developing a biomarker test of burnout, this organisation did not have any input regarding the content of the article, which was drafted completely independently by the authors listed., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)