Lupien S J, de Leon M, de Santi S, Convit A, Tarshish C, Nair N P, Thakur M, McEwen B S, Hauger R L, Meaney M J
Douglas Hospital Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Verdun, Québec, Canada.
Nat Neurosci. 1998 May;1(1):69-73. doi: 10.1038/271.
Elevated glucocorticoid levels produce hippocampal dysfunction and correlate with individual deficits in spatial learning in aged rats. Previously we related persistent cortisol increases to memory impairments in elderly humans studied over five years. Here we demonstrate that aged humans with significant prolonged cortisol elevations showed reduced hippocampal volume and deficits in hippocampus-dependent memory tasks compared to normal-cortisol controls. Moreover, the degree of hippocampal atrophy correlated strongly with both the degree of cortisol elevation over time and current basal cortisol levels. Therefore, basal cortisol elevation may cause hippocampal damage and impair hippocampus-dependent learning and memory in humans.
糖皮质激素水平升高会导致海马体功能障碍，并与老年大鼠空间学习能力的个体缺陷相关。此前，我们将持续的皮质醇升高与对老年人进行长达五年研究中的记忆障碍联系起来。在此我们证明，与正常皮质醇水平的对照组相比，皮质醇显著长期升高的老年人海马体体积减小，且在依赖海马体的记忆任务中存在缺陷。此外，海马体萎缩程度与皮质醇随时间升高的程度以及当前基础皮质醇水平均密切相关。因此，基础皮质醇升高可能会导致人类海马体损伤，并损害依赖海马体的学习和记忆能力。
