Assessing cortisol reactivity to a linguistic task as a marker of stress in individuals with left-hemisphere stroke and aphasia.

Laures-Gore, J., Heim, C., & Hsu, Y. (2007). Assessing cortisol reactivity to a linguistic task as a marker of stress in individuals with left-hemisphere stroke and aphasia. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 50(2), 493-507. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
            Measuring Cortisol levels in saliva is a very popular method that was described in lecture. It allows for a researcher to test stress hormones in the body in any number of fields and areas, without having the nussance of dragging around equipment. Participantion of this nature can literally take as long as a few minutes, and results can be obtained much easier than through other methods of studying stress hormones. I was curious to see an example of study using this exact testing method, and how beneficial it could prove to be.
            The researchers in this study wanted to find out how useful this method was in measuring stress in individuals with aphasia (speech impediment), and how individuals with speech problems differ in terms of stress with their peers without speech problems. In this study, participants did not spit into a flask or container, but rather they chewed a device called a Salivette to collect the saliva. The study contained a total of 30 individual participants (15 control participants, 15 aphasia participants). Each participant underwent both stress manipulations and were tested for cortisol levels at baseline and after each stressor. The first stressor was a linguistics test called the TSST, which calls on the participant to prepare for and participate in an interview. The control group were interviewed on current jobs, the aphasia group were interviewed on jobs before left hemisphere injury. The second stressor was non-linguistic task in which individuals were asked to draw with their nondominant hand. In addition to a salivary test, participants were asked to rate their percieved stress, so that subjective experience and objective findings could be compared.
            The research concluded that perceptually, the aphasia group had more subjective stress following the linguistic stressor than the control group, but that both groups had a sufficient amount of stress after both stressors. If all things being equal, the two groups should differ on the salivary test. This was not the case. In the drawing exercise, neither group showed an elevated cortisol level after the stressor. The control group had elevated cortisol levels, but the group with aphasia did not. The authors note that it may be possible that the negative responses aphasia individuals often get from speaking may have made the task less stressful.