Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Basque Center On Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 7;13(1):11024. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38248-w.
Correlational studies suggest that high temperatures may impair online cognitive performance and learning processes. Here, we tested the hypothesis that heat exposure blocks offline memory consolidation. We report two studies, including a pre-registered replication. First, during a study phase, participants were familiarized with neutral and negatively valenced images. One day later, half of the participants were exposed to high temperatures in a sauna session at 50 °C. Recognition memory was tested 24 h later. We found that participants exposed to high temperature showed an impairment in recognition memory performance, relative to a control group of participants that were not exposed to heat or that had a sauna at 28 °C. This occurred for both emotional and neutral items. These results indicate that heat exposure impairs memory consolidation, thereby opening the possibility of using heat exposure as an agent for the treatment of clinical mental disorders.
相关研究表明，高温可能会损害在线认知表现和学习过程。在这里，我们检验了高温会阻碍离线记忆巩固这一假设。我们报告了两项研究，其中包括一项预先注册的重复研究。首先，在学习阶段，参与者熟悉中性和负性情绪的图片。一天后，一半的参与者在 50°C 的桑拿房中暴露于高温下。24 小时后进行识别记忆测试。我们发现，与未暴露于高温或处于 28°C 桑拿房的对照组相比，暴露于高温的参与者在识别记忆表现上出现了损伤，这种情况同时出现在情绪和中性项目中。这些结果表明，高温暴露会损害记忆巩固，从而为使用高温暴露作为治疗临床精神障碍的手段提供了可能性。
