High cognitive sensitivity to activational effects of testosterone in parents of offspring with autism spectrum disorders

2015

IJERPH

Mothers of offspring with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) could present mild forms of their children’s cognitive characteristics, resulting from prenatal brain exposure and sensitivity to testosterone (T). Indeed, their cognition is frequently characterized by hyper-systemizing, outperforming in tests that assess cognitive domains such as selective attention, and fine motor and visuospatial skills. In the general population, all these start to decline around the mid-forties. This study aimed to characterize whether middle-aged women who are biological mothers of individuals with ASD had better performance in the aforementioned cognitive skills than mothers of normative children (in both groups n = 22; mean age = 45), using the standardized Stroop and mirror-drawing tests. We also examined the role of T in their performance in the aforementioned tests. ASD mothers outperformed controls in both tests, giving more correct answers and making fewer mistakes. In addition, they presented higher T levels, which have been associated with better cognitive performance. Cognitive decline in specific skills with aging could be delayed in these middle-aged women, corresponding to a cognitive endophenotype, T playing an important role in this process.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Autistic Endophenotype and Testosterone Are Involved in an Atypical Decline in Selective Attention and Visuospatial Processing in Middle-Aged Women

2015

IJERPH

“…Afterwards, participants returned to the first room where additional saliva samples were collected 20 and 30 min after the cognitive tasks were completed in order to assess T after 20 and 30 min, respectively. These times were carefully selected according to previous scientific literature on analyzing T fluctuations [ 5 , 27 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we expected caregivers, particularly women, would show worse verbal memory performance than non-caregivers. As depressive mood has a mediating role in the relationship between caregiving and verbal declarative memory decline, especially in women [ 1 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], we expected to find that high depressive mood was associated to worse verbal memory performance, particularly in women. Finally, considering that the stressed middle-aged population and caregivers presented a higher T level average and a specific response to an acute laboratory stressor than non-caregivers [ 10 , 27 ], and the fact that T reduces the risk of cognitive decline in middle-aged men and women [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 19 ], we hypothesized that ED caregivers would present higher T levels at specific times in response to laboratory tasks than non-caregivers, and T would be positively related to declarative memory performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Depressive Mood and Testosterone Related to Declarative Verbal Memory Decline in Middle-Aged Caregivers of Children with Eating Disorders

Ruiz‐Robledillo

2016

IJERPH

Caring for children diagnosed with a chronic psychological disorder such as an eating disorder (ED) can be used as a model of chronic stress. This kind of stress has been reported to have deleterious effects on caregivers’ cognition, particularly in verbal declarative memory of women caregivers. Moreover, high depressive mood and variations in testosterone (T) levels moderate this cognitive decline. The purpose of this study was to characterize whether caregivers of individuals with EDs (n = 27) show declarative memory impairments compared to non-caregivers caregivers (n = 27), using for this purpose a standardized memory test (Rey’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test). Its purpose was also to examine the role of depressive mood and T in memory decline. Results showed that ED caregivers presented high depressive mood, which was associated to worse verbal memory performance, especially in the case of women. In addition, all caregivers showed high T levels. Nonetheless, only in the case of women caregivers did T show a curvilinear relationship with verbal memory performance, meaning that the increases of T were associated to the improvement in verbal memory performance, but only up to a certain point, as after such point T continued to increase and memory performance decreased. Thus, chronic stress due to caregiving was associated to disturbances in mood and T levels, which in turn was associated to verbal memory decline. These findings should be taken into account in the implementation of intervention programs for helping ED caregivers cope with caregiving situations and to prevent the risk of a pronounced verbal memory decline.

“…Both groups (ASD’s caregivers and caregivers of normative offspring) presented a similar pattern of Csal response to acute laboratory stress, with an increase in Csal levels in response to stress and a progressive decrease after the stressor ended (de Andrés-García et al, 2012). Moreover, our previous studies revealed that ASD’s caregivers (fathers and mothers) presented higher Tsal levels than caregivers of normative offspring in specific moments in response to acute laboratory stress (Romero-Martínez, de Andrés-García, Ruiz-Robledillo, González-Bono, & Moya-Albiol, 2014), specifically, both groups presented increases in Tsal levels before the stress and afterwards significantly decreased (Romero-Martínez et al, 2014). Hence, these hormonal alterations could mean that caregivers present a diminished capability to cope with the stress after a long-term exposition to chronic stress.…”

mentioning

confidence: 96%

The Use of Testosterone/Cortisol Ratio in Response to Acute Stress as an Indicator of Propensity to Anger in Informal Caregivers

2016

Span. J. Psychol.

Caring for an offspring diagnosed with a psychological chronic disorder is used in research as a model of chronic stress. Indeed, it is usually associated with disturbances in the salivary cortisol (Csal) levels of the caregiver. An imbalance between salivary testosterone (Tsal) and Csal levels is a marker of proneness to social aggression. Given this, we aimed to establish whether the salivary testosterone/cortisol (Tsal/Csal) ratio response to acute stress could be employed as a marker of proneness to anger in informal caregivers of offspring with autism spectrum (ASD). Tsal/Csal ratio and anger responses to a set of different cognitive tasks as well as anger trait and expression were compared in these informal caregivers and controls. Caregivers, particularly those of offspring with ASD, had higher Tsal/Csal ratios than controls in response to acute stress, concretely after the stress in the case of fathers (p = .05) and before stress when analyzing mothers (p = .05). Moreover, ASD fathers and mothers obtained higher magnitude of the T/C ratio response to stress (p = .03 and p =.04, respectively), anger state (p = .02 and p = .02, respectively) and expression scores (p = .05 and p = .05, respectively) than controls. Finally, high Tsal/Csal ratio levels and response to stress were significantly associated with high anger feelings increases (p .05, respectively) and expression (p .05, respectively) in caregivers.