ArticlePloS one2015
Social stress increases cortisol and hampers attention in adolescents with excess weight.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic scoping review identifying effective virtual reality stress tasks inducing physiological reactivity for future wearables validation.Behavior research methods · 2026Review
- Beyond physical isolation: behavioral correlates and potential neurobiological mechanisms of functional social isolation.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Adolescent sources of stress, stress levels, and associations between stress and changes in weight outcomes at the time of COVID-19 related school closure in March 2020.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- Article
- Influence of pro-obesogenic dietary habits on stress-induced cognitive alterations in healthy adult volunteers.Neurobiology of stress · 2021Article
- Combined effects of age and BMI are related to altered cortical thickness in adolescence and adulthood.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2019Article
- Elevated Cortisol Leaves Working Memory Unaffected in Both Men and Women.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2018Article
- Synaptic Plasticity, Metaplasticity and Depression.Current neuropharmacology · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo experimentally examine if adolescents with excess weight are more sensitive to social stress and hence more sensitive to harmful effects of stress in cognition. DESIGN AND
methodsWe conducted an experimental study in 84 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years old classified in two groups based on age adjusted Body Mass Index percentile: Normal weight (n=42) and Excess weight (n=42). Both groups were exposed to social stress as induced by the virtual reality version of the Trier Social Stress Task--participants were requested to give a public speech about positive and negative aspects of their personalities in front of a virtual audience. The outcome measures were salivary cortisol levels and performance in cognitive tests before and after the social stressor. Cognitive tests included the CANTAB Rapid Visual Processing Test (measuring attention response latency and discriminability) and the Iowa Gambling Task (measuring decision-making).
resultsAdolescents with excess weight compared to healthy weight controls displayed increased cortisol response and less improvement of attentional performance after the social stressor. Decision-making performance decreased after the social stressor in both groups.
conclusionAdolescents who are overweight or obese have increased sensitivity to social stress, which detrimentally impacts attentional skills.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.