ArticleFrontiers in aging neuroscience2023
Serum cortisol is negatively related to hippocampal volume, brain structure, and memory performance in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Article in Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Higher baseline CSF cortisol is associated with adverse 24-month tau-related, neuroimaging, and cognitive outcomes across the Alzheimer's disease continuum.European geriatric medicine · 2026Article
- Correlations between endocrine-metabolic characteristics and body fat distribution, appetite, growth, and memory in children with Prader-Willi syndrome.Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) · 2026Article
- Stress, stress systems, and Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Social connectedness and cognitive outcomes in rural middle- to older-age adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Receiving caregiver support and its association with hair hormones in people living with Alzheimer's disease: The role of caregivers' perspective taking.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Effect of cognitive training on cortisol levels in patients with neurocognitive disorders.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Loneliness and cognitive aging: a brain-heart axis perspective on a modifiable risk.Frontiers in aging · 2026Review
- Emotional vulnerability and research capacity in medical postgraduates: toward understanding the reciprocal relationship and proposing targeted interventions.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Decoding the tumor-aging axis: from bench to clinical.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Mental health and gut-brain crosstalk: implications for depression and Alzheimer's disease.Neuroscience applied · 2026Review
- Loneliness as a sex-specific risk factor for cognitive aging.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
- Molecular mechanism of Alzheimer's disease using integrated multi-omics.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Review
- A seven-year longitudinal study of the Alzheimer's disease blood metabolome.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- The cortisol axis and psychiatric disorders: an updated review.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2025Review
- Type 3 Diabetes: Linking Insulin Resistance to Cognitive Decline.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Influence of the HPA Axis on Anxiety-Related Processes: An RDoC Overview Considering Their Neural Correlates.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Cortisol Detection Methods and the Hormone's Role in Evaluating Circadian Rhythm Disruption.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Adrenal cortex senescence: an ageing-related pathology?Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2025Review
- From Stress to Synapse: The Neuronal Atrophy Pathway to Mood Dysregulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Elevated cortisol levels have been frequently reported in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and linked to brain atrophy, especially of the hippocampus. Besides, high cortisol levels have been shown to impair memory performance and increase the risk of developing AD in healthy individuals. We investigated the associations between serum cortisol levels, hippocampal volume, gray matter volume and memory performance in healthy aging and AD. Methods: In our cross-sectional study, we analyzed the relationships between morning serum cortisol levels, verbal memory performance, hippocampal volume, and whole-brain voxel-wise gray matter volume in an independent sample of 29 healthy seniors (HS) and 29 patients along the spectrum of biomarker-based AD. Results: Cortisol levels were significantly elevated in patients with AD as compared to HS, and higher cortisol levels were correlated with worse memory performance in AD. Furthermore, higher cortisol levels were significantly associated with smaller left hippocampal volumes in HS and indirectly negatively correlated to memory function through hippocampal volume. Higher cortisol levels were further related to lower gray matter volume in the hippocampus and temporal and parietal areas in the left hemisphere in both groups. The strength of this association was similar in HS and AD. Conclusion: In AD, cortisol levels are elevated and associated with worse memory performance. Furthermore, in healthy seniors, higher cortisol levels show a detrimental relationship with brain regions typically affected by AD. Thus, increased cortisol levels seem to be indirectly linked to worse memory function even in otherwise healthy individuals. Cortisol may therefore not only serve as a biomarker of increased risk for AD, but maybe even more importantly, as an early target for preventive and therapeutic interventions.
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