Cargando…

Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits

Recent laboratory studies have shown that men display more risk-taking behavior in decision-making tasks following stress, whilst women are more risk-aversive or become more task-focused. In addition, these studies have shown that sex differences are related to levels of the stress hormone cortisol...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: van den Bos, Ruud, Taris, Ruben, Scheppink, Bianca, de Haan, Lydia, Verster, Joris C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24474909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00219
_version_ 1782299738808254464
author van den Bos, Ruud
Taris, Ruben
Scheppink, Bianca
de Haan, Lydia
Verster, Joris C.
author_facet van den Bos, Ruud
Taris, Ruben
Scheppink, Bianca
de Haan, Lydia
Verster, Joris C.
author_sort van den Bos, Ruud
collection PubMed
description Recent laboratory studies have shown that men display more risk-taking behavior in decision-making tasks following stress, whilst women are more risk-aversive or become more task-focused. In addition, these studies have shown that sex differences are related to levels of the stress hormone cortisol (indicative of activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical-axis): the higher the levels of cortisol the more risk-taking behavior is shown by men, whereas women generally display more risk-aversive or task-focused behavior following higher levels of cortisol. Here, we assessed whether such relationships hold outside the laboratory, correlating levels of cortisol obtained during a job-related assessment procedure with decision-making parameters in the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) in male and female police recruits. The CGT allows for discriminating different aspects of reward-based decision-making. In addition, we correlated levels of alpha-amylase [indicative of activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary-axis (SAM)] and decision-making parameters. In line with earlier studies men and women only differed in risk-adjustment in the CGT. Salivary cortisol levels correlated positively and strongly with risk-taking measures in men, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation in women. In contrast, and less strongly so, salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with risk-taking in women, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation with risk-taking in men. Collectively, these data support and extend data of earlier studies indicating that risky decision-making in men and women is differently affected by stress hormones. The data are briefly discussed in relation to the effects of stress on gambling.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3893681
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2014
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-38936812014-01-28 Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits van den Bos, Ruud Taris, Ruben Scheppink, Bianca de Haan, Lydia Verster, Joris C. Front Behav Neurosci Neuroscience Recent laboratory studies have shown that men display more risk-taking behavior in decision-making tasks following stress, whilst women are more risk-aversive or become more task-focused. In addition, these studies have shown that sex differences are related to levels of the stress hormone cortisol (indicative of activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenocortical-axis): the higher the levels of cortisol the more risk-taking behavior is shown by men, whereas women generally display more risk-aversive or task-focused behavior following higher levels of cortisol. Here, we assessed whether such relationships hold outside the laboratory, correlating levels of cortisol obtained during a job-related assessment procedure with decision-making parameters in the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) in male and female police recruits. The CGT allows for discriminating different aspects of reward-based decision-making. In addition, we correlated levels of alpha-amylase [indicative of activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary-axis (SAM)] and decision-making parameters. In line with earlier studies men and women only differed in risk-adjustment in the CGT. Salivary cortisol levels correlated positively and strongly with risk-taking measures in men, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation in women. In contrast, and less strongly so, salivary alpha-amylase levels correlated positively with risk-taking in women, which was significantly different from the weak negative correlation with risk-taking in men. Collectively, these data support and extend data of earlier studies indicating that risky decision-making in men and women is differently affected by stress hormones. The data are briefly discussed in relation to the effects of stress on gambling. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-01-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3893681/ /pubmed/24474909 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00219 Text en Copyright © 2014 van den Bos, Taris, Scheppink, de Haan and Verster. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
van den Bos, Ruud
Taris, Ruben
Scheppink, Bianca
de Haan, Lydia
Verster, Joris C.
Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title_full Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title_fullStr Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title_full_unstemmed Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title_short Salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
title_sort salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels during an assessment procedure correlate differently with risk-taking measures in male and female police recruits
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893681/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24474909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00219
work_keys_str_mv AT vandenbosruud salivarycortisolandalphaamylaselevelsduringanassessmentprocedurecorrelatedifferentlywithrisktakingmeasuresinmaleandfemalepolicerecruits
AT tarisruben salivarycortisolandalphaamylaselevelsduringanassessmentprocedurecorrelatedifferentlywithrisktakingmeasuresinmaleandfemalepolicerecruits
AT scheppinkbianca salivarycortisolandalphaamylaselevelsduringanassessmentprocedurecorrelatedifferentlywithrisktakingmeasuresinmaleandfemalepolicerecruits
AT dehaanlydia salivarycortisolandalphaamylaselevelsduringanassessmentprocedurecorrelatedifferentlywithrisktakingmeasuresinmaleandfemalepolicerecruits
AT versterjorisc salivarycortisolandalphaamylaselevelsduringanassessmentprocedurecorrelatedifferentlywithrisktakingmeasuresinmaleandfemalepolicerecruits