Abstract
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been considered a public health threat due to its growing prevalence, particularly in the older population. It is important to know the effects of psychosocial stress and its potential consequences for some basic cognitive processes that are important in daily life. Currently, there is very little information about how people with T2D face acute psychosocial stressors, and even less about how their response affects working memory (WM), which is essential for their functionality and independence. Our aim was to characterize the response to an acute laboratory psychosocial stressor and its effects on WM in older people with T2D. Fifty participants with T2D from 52 to 77 years old were randomly assigned to a stress (12 men and 12 women) or control (12 men and 14 women) condition. Mood and physiological (cortisol, C, and salivary alpha-amylase, sAA) responses to tasks were measured. In addition, participants completed a WM test before and after the stress or control task. Our results showed that the TSST elicited higher negative affect and greater C and sAA responses than the control task. No significant differences in WM were observed depending on the exposure to stress or the control task. Finally, participants who showed higher C and sAA responses to the stressor had lower WM performance. Our results indicate that medically treated older adults with T2D show clear, typical mood and physiological responses to an acute psychosocial stressor. Finally, the lack of acute psychosocial stress effects on WM suggests that it could be related to aging and not to this disease, at least when T2D is adequately treated.
Highlights
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been considered a public health threat (Rucker et al, 2012) because of its growing prevalence (Exalto et al, 2013), in the older population (Rucker et al, 2012)
The main purpose of the present study was to characterize the response of older men and women with T2D to an acute psychosocial stressor (i.e., TSST) and its effects on working memory (WM) performance
Stress did not affect WM performance, the WM retention rate was negatively related to the interaction between the C and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) responses to stress
Summary
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) has been considered a public health threat (Rucker et al, 2012) because of its growing prevalence (Exalto et al, 2013), in the older population (Rucker et al, 2012). Stress and Memory in Diabetes (Yeung et al, 2009). Learning seems to be very sensitive to glycemic variations (Ryan and Geckle, 2000) and poorer metabolic control (Ryan et al, 2016), which are associated with the development of cognitive complications (Ryan et al, 2006) and a faster decline on memory measures compared to normo-glycemic subjects (Tuligenga et al, 2014). Reduced frontal lobe/executive function has been found in the T2D population, including in certain memory domains such as working memory (WM) (Kim, 2019). The impact of T2D on these cognitive functions is a crucial topic that should be addressed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
