Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Circadian fluctuations in glucocorticoid level impact perceptual sensitivity

View ORCID ProfileJonas Obleser, View ORCID ProfileJens Kreitewolf, Ricarda Vielhauer, Fanny Lindner, Carolin David, View ORCID ProfileHenrik Oster, View ORCID ProfileSarah Tune
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.07.330282
Jonas Obleser
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
3Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jonas Obleser
  • For correspondence: jonas.obleser@uni-luebeck.de
Jens Kreitewolf
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
3Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jens Kreitewolf
Ricarda Vielhauer
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Fanny Lindner
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Carolin David
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Henrik Oster
2Institute of Neurobiology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
3Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Henrik Oster
Sarah Tune
1Department of Psychology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
3Center for Brain, Behavior, and Metabolism, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Sarah Tune
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Perceptual abilities fluctuate on time scales of seconds or minutes. However, it is unclear how slower, circadian neurobiological rhythms such as the expression of glucocorticoid (GC) hormones modulate our perceptual abilities. Here, we show that phasic, moderate increases in GC availability prove beneficial to auditory discrimination. In an age-varying sample of N = 68 healthy human participants, we characterise the covariation of saliva cortisol with perceptual sensitivity in an auditory pitch-discrimination task at five time points across the sleep–wake cycle. First, momentary saliva cortisol levels were captured well by the time relative to the wake-up cycle and overall sleep duration. Second, within individuals, higher cortisol levels just prior to behavioural testing improved participant’s pitch discrimination abilities, expressed as a steepened psychometric curve. This effect of glucocorticoids on perceptual sensitivity held under a set of statistical control models. Our results pave the way for more in-depth studies on neuroendocrinological determinants of sensory encoding and perception.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵§ shared senior authorship

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 09, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Circadian fluctuations in glucocorticoid level impact perceptual sensitivity
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Circadian fluctuations in glucocorticoid level impact perceptual sensitivity
Jonas Obleser, Jens Kreitewolf, Ricarda Vielhauer, Fanny Lindner, Carolin David, Henrik Oster, Sarah Tune
bioRxiv 2020.10.07.330282; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.07.330282
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Circadian fluctuations in glucocorticoid level impact perceptual sensitivity
Jonas Obleser, Jens Kreitewolf, Ricarda Vielhauer, Fanny Lindner, Carolin David, Henrik Oster, Sarah Tune
bioRxiv 2020.10.07.330282; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.07.330282

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2646)
  • Biochemistry (5264)
  • Bioengineering (3678)
  • Bioinformatics (15796)
  • Biophysics (7253)
  • Cancer Biology (5627)
  • Cell Biology (8095)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4765)
  • Ecology (7516)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10576)
  • Genetics (7730)
  • Genomics (10130)
  • Immunology (5192)
  • Microbiology (13904)
  • Molecular Biology (5384)
  • Neuroscience (30779)
  • Paleontology (215)
  • Pathology (878)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1524)
  • Physiology (2254)
  • Plant Biology (5022)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1041)
  • Synthetic Biology (1385)
  • Systems Biology (4146)
  • Zoology (812)