Cortisol and Testosterone Before High-Stakes Speaking
Elevated cortisol impairs the verbal fluency needed for high-stakes speaking.
Renata Osei-Mensah
Senior Staff Writer
Renata Osei-Mensah
Renata spent eight years as a speech-language pathologist before pivoting to science journalism, where she now covers the biological and psychological underpinnings of how people communicate under pressure. Her clinical background informs a reporting style that bridges lab findings and real-world practice.
5 stories
Reappraising Anxiety as Excitement Before Speaking
Relabel your pre-speech nerves as excitement to actually perform better.
Renata Osei-Mensah
Cognitive Distortions That Make Speaking Fear Worse
Faulty thinking patterns amplify speaking anxiety more than nervousness itself does.
Renata Osei-Mensah
Virtual Reality Exposure for Public Speaking Fear
VR exposure therapy treats the fear mechanism directly instead of coaching around it.
Renata Osei-Mensah
Credibility Signals in the First 30 Seconds of a Speech
Audiences decide whether to trust a speaker in the first 30 seconds before conscious thought begins.
Renata Osei-Mensah