Domes Gregor, Heinrichs Markus, Rimmele Ulrike, Reichwald Ursula, Hautzinger Martin
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Rostock University, Gehlsheimerstrasse 20, D-18055 Rostock Germany.
Stress. 2004 Sep;7(3):173-81. doi: 10.1080/10253890412331273213.
Some studies suggest that stress-induced effects of cortisol on memory are modulated by the valence of the stimuli to be learned and retrieved. The present study investigated the effect of acute stress-induced cortisol secretion on acquisition and retrieval of pleasant, unpleasant and neutral words. Sixty healthy men were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental groups. Participants were either exposed to a standardized laboratory stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test) before learning a wordlist, or before retrieval, or were not stressed. Free recall and recognition were tested 24 h later. Free recall was not affected by stress exposure. For recognition, there was no main effect of the stressor, but a main effect of valence and a valence by group interaction emerged: recognition for positive words was significantly impaired when subjects were stressed before retrieval. In addition, a positive correlation between the cortisol response and errors of commission was found. The results suggest that acute stress impairs memory for positive stimuli and that stress-induced cortisol secretion interferes with accuracy of memory retrieval, i.e. the ability to discriminate true memories from false ones.
一些研究表明，皮质醇由应激诱导产生的对记忆的影响会受到待学习和提取刺激的效价的调节。本研究调查了急性应激诱导的皮质醇分泌对愉快、不愉快和中性词汇的获取与提取的影响。60名健康男性被随机分配到三个实验组之一。参与者在学习单词表之前、提取之前或者不施加压力的情况下，接受标准化的实验室应激源（特里尔社会应激测试）。24小时后测试自由回忆和识别能力。自由回忆不受应激暴露的影响。对于识别能力，应激源没有主效应，但效价有主效应，并且出现了效价与组别的交互作用：当受试者在提取之前受到应激时，对积极词汇的识别显著受损。此外，还发现皮质醇反应与错误行为之间存在正相关。结果表明，急性应激会损害对积极刺激的记忆，并且应激诱导的皮质醇分泌会干扰记忆提取的准确性，即区分真实记忆和错误记忆的能力。
