Antypa Despina, Barros Rodrigues Daniela, Billecocq Marie, Rimmele Ulrike
Department of Basic Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center of Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Crete, Greece; Emotion and Memory Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Emotion and Memory Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Gerontology and Vulnerability (CIGEV), University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Dec;146:105895. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105895. Epub 2022 Aug 23.
Laboratory studies have consistently shown that stress impairs memory retrieval of individual parts (items) of a memory. The stress-hormone cortisol has been particularly linked to this impairment. However, it is unclear whether cortisol similarly affects the binding of items to associative context information in memory, i.e. the constituents of episodic memory. Here, we examine memory retrieval of item and associative memory under pharmacologically elevated cortisol vs. normal levels. Given that previous studies have indicated potential sex differences in the stress- and cortisol-induced memory modulation, we additionally assessed whether there may be sex differences for the cortisol effect on memory retrieval. Eighty-four female and male participants were tested in a placebo controlled, double-blind between-subject design, assigned to either a cortisol (10 mg hydrocortisone) or a placebo group. Participants of both groups were presented foreground images of negative and neutral valence on different neutral background scenes. Twenty-four hours later, participants' memory for the images and their associated background scene was tested with a recognition task 20 min after substance administration. Among the 78 participants of both groups included in the final analysis, cortisol levels were higher in the cortisol group in comparison to the placebo group, and female participants had higher cortisol levels after hydrocortisone intake in comparison to male participants. Item memory did not differ between the placebo and cortisol group. In contrast, in males, but not females, associative memory for the background scene of emotional foreground images was lower in the cortisol vs. placebo group. Moreover, the individual cortisol increase during the recognition task was negatively correlated to memory for the background scenes of the emotional foreground images only in male participants of the cortisol group. This study shows that pharmacologically increased cortisol levels distinctly affect associative memory in female and male participants, but have no effect on item memory, indicating a complex interaction for the stress effects on memory.
实验室研究一直表明，压力会损害记忆中各个部分（项目）的记忆提取。应激激素皮质醇与这种损害尤其相关。然而，目前尚不清楚皮质醇是否同样会影响记忆中项目与联想情境信息的结合，即情景记忆的组成部分。在此，我们研究了在药理学上提高皮质醇水平与正常水平下的项目记忆和联想记忆提取情况。鉴于先前的研究表明在压力和皮质醇诱导的记忆调节中可能存在性别差异，我们还评估了皮质醇对记忆提取的影响是否存在性别差异。84名女性和男性参与者在安慰剂对照、双盲的被试间设计中接受测试，被分配到皮质醇组（10毫克氢化可的松）或安慰剂组。两组参与者在不同的中性背景场景中观看具有负面和中性效价的前景图像。24小时后，在给药20分钟后，通过识别任务测试参与者对图像及其相关背景场景的记忆。在最终分析纳入的两组78名参与者中，与安慰剂组相比，皮质醇组的皮质醇水平更高，与男性参与者相比，女性参与者在摄入氢化可的松后的皮质醇水平更高。安慰剂组和皮质醇组之间的项目记忆没有差异。相比之下，在男性而非女性中，皮质醇组与安慰剂组相比，对情绪化前景图像背景场景的联想记忆较低。此外，仅在皮质醇组的男性参与者中，识别任务期间个体皮质醇的增加与对情绪化前景图像背景场景的记忆呈负相关。这项研究表明，药理学上增加的皮质醇水平对女性和男性参与者的联想记忆有明显影响，但对项目记忆没有影响，表明压力对记忆的影响存在复杂的相互作用。
