Impaired memory retrieval after psychosocial stress in healthy young men - PubMed (original) (raw)

Comparative Study

Impaired memory retrieval after psychosocial stress in healthy young men

Sabrina Kuhlmann et al. J Neurosci. 2005.

Abstract

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are known to modulate memory in animals and humans. One popular model suggests that stress or GC treatment enhances memory consolidation while impairing delayed memory retrieval. Studies in humans have documented that treatment with GCs impairs delayed memory retrieval. Similar alterations after exposure to stress have not been observed thus far. In the present study, 19 young healthy male subjects were exposed to either a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control condition in a crossover manner. After both treatments, retrieval of a word list (learned 24 h earlier) containing 10 neutral, 10 negative, and 10 positive words was tested. The stressor induced a significant increase in salivary free cortisol and a decrease in mood. Memory retrieval (free recall) was significantly impaired after the stress condition. Follow-up analysis revealed that negative and positive words (i.e., emotionally arousing words) were affected, whereas no effect was observed for neutral words. No changes were detected for cued recall, working memory, or attention. The present study thus demonstrates that psychosocial stress impairs memory retrieval in humans and suggests that emotionally arousing material is especially sensitive to this effect.

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Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Free salivary cortisol levels in response to the stress or the control condition. “Treatment” refers to the stress versus the control condition (for details, see Materials and Methods). “Testing” refers to the period of retrieval and cued-recall testing (of the word list learned 24 h earlier) as well as to the working memory and attention testing. *Significant differences (p < 0.05) in Holm-adjusted paired t tests. Error bars represent SE.

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Effects of the stress versus the control condition on delayed memory retrieval of words learned 24 h earlier. Results are expressed as percentages of the second (and last) learning trial of the previous day. Each word list contained 10 positive, 10 neutral, and 10 negative words. The category “arousing words” is a post hoc created category containing the positive and the negative words. §p < 0.1, *p < 0.05, and **p < 0.01, differences in paired t tests. For additional statistical analysis using ANOVAs, see Results. Error bars represent SE.

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