文档介绍：ate/ynimg
NeuroImage 28 (2005) 815 – 826
Self-esteem, locus of control, hippocampal volume, and cortisol
regulation in young and old adulthood
Jens C. Pruessner,a,b,* Mark W. Baldwin,c Katarina Dedovic,b Robert Renwick,b
Najmeh Khalili Mahani,a,b Catherine Lord,b Michael Meaney,b and Sonia Lupienb
onnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
bDouglas Hospital Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
cDepartment of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Received 2 December 2004; revised 27 May 2005; accepted 8 June 2005
Available online 14 July 2005
Self-esteem, the value we place on ourselves, has been associated with Introduction
effects on health, life expectancy, and life satisfaction. Correlated with
self-esteem is internal locus of control, the individual’s perception of Self-esteem is a broadly defined personality variable referring
being in control of his or her es. Recently, variations in self- to the degree to which an individual values and accepts him- or
esteem and internal locus of control have been shown to predict the herself. Low self-esteem has been associated with a host of
neuroendocrine cortisol response to stress. Cumulative exposure to
negative life es, including substance abuse, delinquency,
high levels of cortisol over the lifetime is known to be related to
hippocampal atrophy. We therefore examined hippocampal volume unhappiness, depression, eating disorders, and worsened recovery
and cortisol regulation, to investigate potential biological mechanisms after illnesses (see Hoyle et al., 1999; Leary and McDonald, 2003).
related to self-esteem. We investigated 16 healthy young (age range 20– High self-esteem has been associated with positive characteristics
26 years of age) and 23 healthy elderly subjects (age range 60–84 such as initiative, strong coping skills, persistence in the face of
years). The young subjects w