ArticleScientific reports2020
Hair cortisol concentrations are associated with hippocampal subregional volumes in children.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychosocial factors and hippocampal subfields: The Medea-7T study.Human brain mapping · 2023Pooled it
- Effects of Variations in Daily Cortisol Pattern and Long-Term Cortisol Output on Hippocampal Subfield Volumes in the Adult Human Brain.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Prenatal stress and neuroendocrine pathways framing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a functionally based neurodevelopmental disorder: a narrative review.Journal of Yeungnam medical science · 2025Article
- Measuring Socioeconomic and Stress Disparities in Infant Declarative Memory Using the Visual Paired Comparison Task.Developmental psychobiology · 2024Article
- Tentative Causes of Brain and Neuropsychological Alterations in Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- Relations of Lifetime Perceived Stress and Basal Cortisol With Hippocampal Volume Among Healthy Adolescents and Those at Clinical High Risk for Psychosis: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach.Biological psychiatry · 2024Article
- Building a cumulative science of memory development.Developmental review : DR · 2024Article
- Dentate Gyrus Microstructure Is Associated With Resilience After Exposure to Maternal Stress Across Two Human Cohorts.Biological psychiatry · 2024Article
- Household socioeconomic status relates to specific hippocampal subfield volumes across development.Hippocampus · 2023Article
- Relationship between hair cortisol concentrations and cognitive functioning in adolescents with ADHD.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Article
- Hair glucocorticoids are associated with childhood adversity, depressive symptoms and reduced global and lobar grey matter in Generation Scotland.Translational psychiatry · 2021Article
- Peer victimization and the association with hippocampal development and working memory in children with ADHD and typically-developing children.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Prenatal Exposure to High Cortisol Induces ADHD-like Behaviors with Delay in Spatial Cognitive Functions during the Post-weaning Period in Rats.Experimental neurobiology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The human hippocampus, a brain structure crucial for memory across the lifespan, is highly sensitive to adverse life events. Stress exposures during childhood have been linked to altered hippocampal structure and memory performance in adulthood. Animal studies suggest that these differences are in part driven by aberrant glucocorticoid secretion during development, with strongest effects on the CA3 region and the dentate gyrus (CA3-DG) of the hippocampus, alongside associated memory impairments. However, only few pediatric studies have examined glucocorticoid associations with hippocampal subfield volumes and their functional relevance. In 84 children (age range: 6-7 years), we assessed whether volumes of hippocampal subregions were related to cumulative glucocorticoid levels (hair cortisol), parenting stress, and performance on memory tasks known to engage the hippocampus. We found that higher hair cortisol levels were specifically related to lower CA3-DG volume. Parenting stress did not significantly correlate with hair cortisol, and there was no evidence to suggest that individual differences in hippocampal subregional volumes manifest in memory performance. Our results suggest that the CA3-DG may be the hippocampal region most closely associated with hair cortisol levels in childhood. Establishing causal pathways underlying this association and its relation to environmental stress and memory development necessitates longitudinal studies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.