Cited by 567Stress Responses and CortisolAdrenal Hormones and DisordersDementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Basal cortisol levels and cognitive deficits in human aging

Open access
Lupien, S, Lecours, AR, Lussier, I, Schwartz, G, Nair, NP, Meaney, MJ·1994·The Journal of Neuroscience

Abstract

A group of 19 healthy elderly subjects previously shown to differ in terms of their cortisol levels over a 4 year period were administered a neuropsychological test battery assessing memory, attention, and language. Correlational analyses performed on various corticosteroid measures showed that the slope of the change in cortisol levels over time predicted cognitive deficits in this elderly population. Aged subjects showing a significant increase in cortisol levels with years and with high current basal cortisol levels were impaired on tasks measuring explicit memory and selective attention when compared to aged subjects presenting either decreasing cortisol levels with years or increasing cortisol levels with moderate current basal cortisol levels. We further showed that subjects presenting a decrease in cortisol levels with years performed as well as young healthy subjects with regard to cognitive performance. Thus, impaired cognitive performance was associated with recent evidence of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) dysregulation and elevated basal cortisol levels. These results are consistent with recent animal studies showing the existence of subpopulations of aged rats that differ in HPA activity and cognitive performance. Finally, the pattern of cognitive results related to the cortisol history of subjects is in agreement with a role played by the hippocampus in age-related HPA dysfunction and cognitive performance.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1523/jneurosci.14-05-02893.1994

Cites

95 of 95 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Lyons J (1976) Semantics, 12. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  2. Meanev MJ. Bodnoff SR. O'Donnell D. Rowe W. Sanieau A. Rose GM,'Poi&r J, Seckl J (1993) Glucocorticoids as regulators ofneuron survival and repair in the aged brain. In: Restorative neurology, Vol 6 (Cue110 AC, ed), pp 185-210. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  3. Squire LR (1987) Memory and brain. New York: Oxford UP.
  4. Treisman A (1983) The role of attention in obiect nercention. In: Physical and biological processing of images (BraddickOJ, Sleigh AC, eds), pp 3 16-325. New York: Springer.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lupien, S., Lecours, A., Lussier, I., Schwartz, G., Nair, N., & Meaney, M.
Venue
The Journal of Neuroscience
Published
1994-05-01
Volume
14
Issue
5
Pages
2893-2903
ISSN
  • 0270-6474 (ISSN-L)
  • 1529-2401
OpenAlex
W1920785023
Cited by
566
References
92
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 17
FWCI
10.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Alzheimer's Association
  • Medical Research Council Canada
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01ag009488-05)
  • Medical Research Council
  • National Institute on Aging (AG 09488)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Adrenal Hormones and Disorders
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
Keywords
basal cortisol, cognitive aging, HPA axis dysregulation, declarative memory, selective attention, hippocampus, corticosteroids
MeSH terms
Aged, Aging, Attention, Cognition Disorders, Electrocardiography, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Intelligence, Intelligence Tests, Language, Learning, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Memory, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review