van Wingen Guido, van Broekhoven Frank, Verkes Robbert Jan, Petersson Karl Magnus, Bäckström Torbjörn, Buitelaar Jan, Fernández Guillén
F. C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 EN Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
J Neurosci. 2007 Oct 17;27(42):11416-23. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1715-07.2007.
Progesterone, or rather its neuroactive metabolite allopregnanolone, modulates amygdala activity and thereby influences anxiety. Cognition and, in particular, memory are also altered by allopregnanolone. In the present study, we investigated whether allopregnanolone modulates memory for biologically salient stimuli by influencing amygdala activity, which in turn may affect neural processes in other brain regions. A single progesterone dose was administered orally to healthy young women in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, and participants were asked to memorize and recognize faces while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Progesterone decreased recognition accuracy without affecting reaction times. The imaging results show that the amygdala, hippocampus, and fusiform gyrus supported memory formation. Importantly, progesterone decreased responses to faces in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus during memory encoding, whereas it increased hippocampal responses. The progesterone-induced decrease in neural activity in the amygdala and fusiform gyrus predicted the decrease in memory performance across subjects. However, progesterone did not modulate the differential activation between subsequently remembered and subsequently forgotten faces in these areas. A similar pattern of results was observed in the fusiform gyrus and prefrontal cortex during memory retrieval. These results suggest that allopregnanolone impairs memory by reducing the recruitment of those brain regions that support memory formation and retrieval. Given the important role of the amygdala in the modulation of memory, these results suggest that allopregnanolone alters memory by influencing amygdala activity, which in turn may affect memory processes in other brain regions.
孕酮，或者更确切地说是其具有神经活性的代谢产物别孕烷醇酮，可调节杏仁核的活动，从而影响焦虑情绪。别孕烷醇酮还会改变认知，尤其是记忆。在本研究中，我们调查了别孕烷醇酮是否通过影响杏仁核的活动来调节对具有生物学显著性刺激的记忆，而这反过来可能会影响其他脑区的神经过程。在一项双盲、安慰剂对照的交叉设计中，给健康年轻女性口服单次剂量的孕酮，要求参与者在进行功能磁共振成像时记忆并识别面孔。孕酮降低了识别准确率，但不影响反应时间。成像结果表明，杏仁核、海马体和梭状回支持记忆形成。重要的是，孕酮在记忆编码期间降低了杏仁核和梭状回对面孔的反应，而增加了海马体的反应。孕酮诱导的杏仁核和梭状回神经活动减少预测了受试者记忆表现的下降。然而，孕酮并未调节这些区域中随后被记住和随后被遗忘面孔之间的差异激活。在记忆检索过程中，梭状回和前额叶皮层也观察到了类似的结果模式。这些结果表明，别孕烷醇酮通过减少支持记忆形成和检索的脑区的参与来损害记忆。鉴于杏仁核在记忆调节中的重要作用，这些结果表明别孕烷醇酮通过影响杏仁核的活动来改变记忆，而这反过来可能会影响其他脑区的记忆过程。
