Association among salivary alpha-amylase activity and executive functioning in healthy children

Abstract

Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) is employed in basic research as a surrogate and non-invasive marker of the activity of Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) and Adrenomedullar System (AMS). In particular, sAA has showed a statistically sig- nificant association with levels of peripheral noradrenaline under acute psychoso- cial stress conditions in young and healthy participants. In this study, our aim was directed to describe the relation among sAA and cognitive performance in differ- ent executive tasks in a sample composed by 69 healthy children (45 boys). The tasks employed to assess executive functioning belong to the ENFEN battery (which measures different aspects of executive functions through four subtests: Phonologic and Semantic Fluency, Trail Making Test, Towers, and Interference). Saliva samples were obtained at baseline (10 minutes before the start of neuro- psychological assessment), just one minute before and just one minute after the end of the last subtest of ENFEN. Our statistical analyses showed a direct and sig- nificant association among sAA and scores in Phonologic Fluency, Trail Making, Towers and Interference subtests of ENFEN after controlling the effect of BMI. These results show a positive lineal association among sAA and executive behav- ior in healthy children. We discuss these findings in relation with those studies what have suggested a main role of the noradrenergic central action mediated via Locus Coeruleus-Noradrenaline System (LC-NA System) in the regulation of executive behavior.