Abstract
In contrast to the large body of research on the effects of stress-induced cortisol on memory consolidation in young people, far less attention has been devoted to understanding the effects of stress-induced testosterone on this memory phase. This study examined the psychobiological (i.e., anxiety, cortisol, and testosterone) response to the Maastricht Acute Stress Test and its impact on free recall and recognition for emotional and neutral material. Thirty-seven healthy young men and women were exposed to a stress (MAST) or control task post-encoding, and 24 h later, they had to recall the material previously learned. Results indicated that the MAST increased anxiety and cortisol levels, but it did not significantly change the testosterone levels. Post-encoding MAST did not affect memory consolidation for emotional and neutral pictures. Interestingly, however, cortisol reactivity was negatively related to free recall for negative low-arousal pictures, whereas testosterone reactivity was positively related to free recall for negative-high arousal and total pictures. This study provides preliminary evidence about a different reactivity of testosterone and cortisol to the MAST as well as on their effects on consolidation. Our results suggest a different pattern of relationships between these steroid hormones and the arousal of the negative images.
Highlights
It is widely assumed that memory can be influenced by both chronic and acute stress
Brain Sci. 2020, 10, 995 adaptive mechanism [5]. This model suggests that cortisol blocks memory retrieval processes in favor of consolidation processes, facilitating the consolidation of new important information related to the stressor that should be recalled in similar future situations
Supporting this theory, a large number of studies have investigated the effects of acute stress on memory consolidation, that is, when the stressor is applied shortly after learning, with improvements found in young people [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Summary
It is widely assumed that memory can be influenced by both chronic and acute stress. chronic stress clearly impairs memory function, the direction of the effects of acute stress on memory performance is not clear, due to numerous factors related to the stressor, the memory function assessed, the material to be remembered, and the individuals (i.e., sex and age) considered [1]. This model suggests that cortisol blocks memory retrieval processes in favor of consolidation processes, facilitating the consolidation of new important information related to the stressor that should be recalled in similar future situations Supporting this theory, a large number of studies have investigated the effects of acute stress on memory consolidation, that is, when the stressor is applied shortly after learning (i.e., post-encoding stress), with improvements found in young people [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. The current study aimed to examine the psychobiological (i.e., anxiety, cortisol, and testosterone) response to the MAST and its effects on memory consolidation in healthy young men and women. We expected an enhancing effect of the MAST on consolidation performance, for emotional material [2]
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