Effects of testosterone and cortisol on executive functions: alterations induced by poses that depict high and low power

• Grant number: 14/03393-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Physiological Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Sabine Pompéia
• Grantee: Ilana Sue Sumiyoshi
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to replicate the data obtained by Carney et al. (2010), who demonstrated that in comparison to low power poses, adopting high power poses elicits increased testosterone, decreased salivary cortisol and increases risk behavior in healthy young people of both sexes, with no control over the menstrual cycle and use of oral contraceptives in women. Additionally, we intended to investigate in greater detail some aspects of the above-mentioned phenomena that were not considered in the original work. The procedures herein will be exactly the same as those proposed by Carney et al. (2010), except for the inclusion of the following items that will not interfere with the protocol proposed by these authors: a) participants will be 40 individuals with different baseline levels of testosterone, i.e., 20 men and 20 women (under the effect of the contraceptive pill, which elicits changes in testosterone and cortisol), to determine whether basal testosterone and cortisol interfere with the effects of the poses; b) personality profiles and mood of participants will be determined by validated scales to better understand how the effects of the poses are related to these variables; c) the effects of poses will be tested on several representative tasks of cold executives functions that are affected by mood (updating, inhibition, switching and access to long-term memory) and hot executive functions (risk behavior through the same test uses in the original work and the Balloon Analogue Risk Task); d) the experimenter will be blinded to the poses manipulation. It will thus be possible to determine in more detail the effects of adopting different poses on cognitive behavior. Regarding ethical issues, this study does not involve any invasive manipulations, neither risks or discomfort larger than minimum. (AU)