Technische Universität Dresden, Department of Psychology, Dresden, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2013 Nov;38(11):2485-92. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.05.008. Epub 2013 Jun 12.
The cortisol awakening response (CAR) is frequently assessed in psychoneuroendocrinological research on adult participants. However, knowledge on the development of the CAR during early life is scarce and characterized by inconsistent findings. We have recently shown that a positive CAR is readily observable in young infants under conditions of strict methodological control. However, it still remains unknown whether a significant CAR is maintained consistently throughout toddler- and childhood. Here, we report data from 150 toddlers and young children aged 12-87 months in whom salivary cortisol levels were assessed 0 and 30 min post-awakening over three non-consecutive study days. High quality of data was ensured by the use of objective measures to verify children's awakening times (wrist actigraphy) and sampling times (electronic monitoring containers). Results revealed the presence of a significant CAR (>1.5 nmol/L) in 142 (out of 150) children and on a total of 82% of study days. A marked CAR was consistently observed throughout all examined age groups (mean increase: 8.73 nmol/L). In addition, the level of cortisol on awakening was found to increase linearly with children's age (r=.17, p=.04). Overall, the current findings strongly suggest that, contrary to previous propositions, the CAR is maintained consistently throughout toddler- and childhood.
皮质醇觉醒反应（CAR）在成人参与者的心理神经内分泌学研究中经常被评估。然而，关于生命早期 CAR 发展的知识很少，并且研究结果不一致。我们最近已经表明，在严格的方法学控制条件下，年轻婴儿很容易表现出积极的 CAR。然而，目前还不清楚在幼儿期和儿童期是否始终保持着显著的 CAR。在这里，我们报告了 150 名 12-87 个月大的幼儿和儿童的数据，这些儿童在三个非连续的研究日中，在觉醒后 0 和 30 分钟测量唾液皮质醇水平。通过使用客观的方法来验证儿童的觉醒时间（腕部动作描记法）和采样时间（电子监测容器），确保了数据的高质量。结果显示，在 150 名儿童中有 142 名（占 150 名）儿童和总共 82%的研究日中存在显著的 CAR（>1.5 nmol/L）。在所有检查的年龄组中，都观察到了明显的 CAR（平均增加量：8.73 nmol/L）。此外，研究还发现，儿童的皮质醇水平与年龄呈线性增加（r=.17，p=.04）。总体而言，目前的研究结果强烈表明，与之前的观点相反，CAR 在幼儿期和儿童期始终保持一致。
