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Acute Cortisol Levels and Memory Performance in Older People with High and Normal Body Mass Index

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2019

Matias M. Pulopulos ,
Sara Puig-Perez Open the ORCID record for Sara Puig-Perez [Opens in a new window] ,
Vanesa Hidalgo ,
Teresa Montoliu  and
Alicia Salvador
Matias M. Pulopulos*
Affiliation:
Universiteit Gent (Belgium)
Sara Puig-Perez
Affiliation:
Universidad Internacional de Valencia (Spain)
Vanesa Hidalgo
Affiliation:
Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)
Teresa Montoliu
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
Alicia Salvador
Affiliation:
Universitat de València (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Matias Pulopulos. Universiteit Gent. Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology. Henri Dunantlaan, 2. 9000 Gent (Belgium). E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +32–092646472.
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Abstract

Previous studies have shown that healthy older adults may be less sensitive to the effects of acute cortisol levels on memory performance than young adults. Importantly, being overweight has recently been associated with an increase in both cortisol concentration and cortisol receptors in central tissues, suggesting that Body Mass Index (BMI) may contribute to differences in the relationship between memory and acute cortisol. This study investigates the role of BMI in the relationship between memory performance and acute cortisol levels in older people (M = 64.70 years; SD = 4.24). We measured cortisol levels and memory performance (working memory and declarative memory) in 33 participants with normal BMI (normal BMI = 18.50–24.99) and 36 participants with overweight BMI (overweight BMI = 25–29.99). Overweight BMI participants showed worse performance on word-list learning (p = .036, 95% CI [0.08, 2.18], η2p = 0.07). Higher cortisol levels were related to higher proactive interference (β = .364, p = .016, 95% CI [0.07, 0.66]), and BMI did not moderate any of the relationships investigated. In accordance with previous studies, our results show worse memory performance in individuals with overweight BMI. However, our results do not support the idea that memory performance in older people with higher BMI may be more sensitive to differences in acute cortisol levels than in older people with normal BMI. More research is needed to test this hypothesis with obese individuals (BMI > 30 Kg/cm2).

Keywords

body mass indexcortisolmemoryolder peopleoverweight
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 22 , 2019 , E41
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2019 

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Footnotes

We are grateful to Marta García Lluch, Dr. Carolina Villada, Dr. Mercedes Almela and Dr. Eva Lira for their support in the research process, and Ms. Cindy DePoy for the revision of the English text. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (grants PSI2013/46889, FPU AP2010-1830 to M.M.P., FPI/BES-2008-004224 to V.H. and FPU12/04597 to S.P-P.), Generalitat Valenciana (grants PROMETEOII2015-20 and ISIC/2013/01), Universitat de València (grant UV-INV-PREDOC16F1-383576 to T.M.), Ghent University (Grant BOF 01P18916 to M.M.P), and Government of Aragón, Department of Innovation, Research and University and FEDER “Construyendo desde Aragón”.

How to cite this article:

Pulopulos, M.M, Puig-Perez, S., Hidalgo, V., Montoliu, T., & Salvador, A. (2019). Acute cortisol levels and memory performance in older people with high and normal body mass index. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 22. e41. Doi:10.1017/sjp.2019.44

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