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Cortisol and Memory Retrieval in Humans: Influence of Emotional Valence
Author(s) -
WOLF O T.,
KUHLMANN S,
BUSS C,
HELLHAMMER D H.,
KIRSCHBAUM C
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1314.019
Subject(s) - emotional valence , valence (chemistry) , psychology , emotional memory , memory consolidation , autobiographical memory , human memory , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , cognition , neuroscience , recall , amygdala , chemistry , organic chemistry , hippocampus
A bstract : Glucocorticoids secreted in response to stress modulate memory in animals and humans. Studies in rodents suggest that glucocorticoids enhance memory consolidation but impair delayed retrieval. Similar negative effects on memory retrieval have been reported in humans. The human studies so far have not addressed the issue of emotional valence, which conceivably could modulate the effects of cortisol on retrieval. The present mini‐review discusses two recent studies from our laboratories that investigate the influence of emotional valence on the retrieval‐impairing effects of cortisol. Both studies observed that cortisol impaired retrieval and that emotional valence influenced these effects. For autobiographical memory the impairing effects were stronger for neutral than for emotional items, whereas for word retrieval the opposite pattern was observed (stronger effects on emotional words). Possible reasons for these results are the different memory domains tested as well as the different sex of the subjects. Future studies will address these issues, which are of relevance for psychiatric disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder or major depression.