Department of Psychobiology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Apr;38(4):488-98. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2012.07.007. Epub 2012 Jul 31.
Exposure to elevated glucocorticoid levels has a detrimental impact on cognitive function. In the present study, elderly individuals were classified according to their cognitive status to (i) cognitively healthy; (ii) amnestic; (iii) nonamnestic; or (iv) multidomain, with an extensive cognitive profiling. Salivary cortisol samples were taken at awakening, evening and night. We report that, compared to cognitively normal control individuals, subjects with nonamnestic or multidomain mild cognitive impairment profiles show increased salivary cortisol levels, immediately after awakening, but not in the evening or at night. Importantly, individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment did not show this increase in salivary cortisol levels. We also found that higher morning cortisol levels were associated with a lower global cognitive state, as well as poorer score in executive function and visuoconstructive praxes, verbal fluency, and a worse free immediate recall of items from a word list. These findings open new avenues to the use of salivary cortisol levels as a possible biomarker for nonamnestic and multidomain mild cognitive impairment in elderly subjects.
暴露于升高的糖皮质激素水平对认知功能有不利影响。在本研究中，根据认知状态将老年人分为（i）认知健康；（ii）遗忘型；（iii）非遗忘型；或（iv）多领域型，并进行广泛的认知分析。在觉醒、傍晚和夜间采集唾液皮质醇样本。我们报告称，与认知正常的对照组个体相比，非遗忘型或多领域轻度认知障碍患者在觉醒后即刻表现出更高的唾液皮质醇水平，但傍晚或夜间则不然。重要的是，遗忘型轻度认知障碍患者没有表现出这种唾液皮质醇水平的升高。我们还发现，较高的早晨皮质醇水平与整体认知状态较低，以及执行功能和视觉建构技能、言语流畅性、单词列表的自由即时回忆项目较差等方面得分较差有关。这些发现为使用唾液皮质醇水平作为老年患者非遗忘型和多领域轻度认知障碍的潜在生物标志物开辟了新途径。
