Elsevier

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Volume 29, Issue 8, September 2004, Pages 1093-1096
Psychoneuroendocrinology

SHORT COMMUNICATION
Autobiographic memory impairment following acute cortisol administration

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2003.09.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous experimental studies in humans have reported that the administration of cortisol impairs retrieval of hippocampal dependent, episodic memory. In particular, cortisol impaired recall of previously learnt words. In the present study, we investigated if cortisol also affects autobiographical memory, which reflects a subcategory of hippocampal dependent, episodic memory. Twenty two male students participated in this placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study. One hour after the administration of 10 mg hydrocortisone, subjects generated significantly fewer specific memories in the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) when compared to placebo. In contrast, cortisol did not affect mood and attention. The present findings extend the current knowledge about cortisol effects on memory retrieval and raise the possibility that impaired autobiographical memory in depression may be at least partly due to elevated cortisol levels which often accompany this disorder.

Introduction

There is evidence from animal studies that acute stress modulates memory, with enhancing and impairing effects being reported (de Kloet et al., 1999, Roozendaal, 2002). Stress associated with learning of a task facilitates memory consolidation. Studies in rats suggest that this effect is mediated by activated glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and depends on a co-activation of ß-adrenergic receptors in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA; Roozendaal, 2002). Studies with mouse mutants have further revealed that binding of the GRs to DNA in the hippocampus is required for this effect (Oitzl et al., 2001). In humans, following the administration of hydrocortisone, memory is enhanced for emotionally arousing material but not for neutral information (Buchanan and Lovallo, 2001), which is in line with the above mentioned animal results supporting an involvement of the amygdala in the cortisol effect on consolidation.

In contrast stressors unrelated to the learning event (out of context) can impair spatial memory in rats (Diamond et al., 1996). Experimental studies in healthy human subjects have also observed that psychosocial stress or acute cortisol treatment often has impairing effects on declarative memory (Lupien and McEwen, 1997, Wolf, 2003). Recent studies have found that acute glucocorticoid treatment leads to impaired recall of previously learnt material in animals (de Quervain et al., 1998) and humans (de Quervain et al., 2000, Wolf et al., 2001). Hippocampal GRs are assumed to mediate this cortisol memory effect, which is supported by recent animal data indicating that selective hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor activation leads to impaired spatial memory retrieval (Roozendaal et al., 2003). Moreover, a human neuroimaging study of memory retrieval reported reduced blood flow in the medial temporal lobe after cortisone administration, which was accompanied by impaired memory retrieval (de Quervain et al., 2003).

Autobiographical memory is conceptualised as a subsystem of episodic memory, being responsible for remembering specific episodes of one’s own past (Tulving, 2002). Impaired autobiographic memory performance in depressed patients is characterized by their inability to recall specific individually experienced events, but answering with summary descriptions of situations instead (Barnhofer et al., 2002). In patients with major depression, hyperactivity of the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis leading to hypercortisolemia is a frequently observed abnormality (Parker et al., 2003). No cortisol measurements were conducted in the Barnhofer’s study, so that it is not clear if the autobiographic memory deficits were associated with hypercortisolism. Speculating that the autobiographic memory impairment in depressed patients could be associated with their hypercortisolemic state, we were interested to study the effects of acute hydrocortisone administration on autobiographic memory (AM) retrieval in healthy subjects.

Section snippets

Methods and material

Twenty-two healthy male university students (mean age 26.27 ± 0.89) participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study. All participants were free of medication at the time of testing. The study was approved by the local ethics committee, and all subjects gave written informed consent. Each participant was tested twice with parallel versions of the autobiographic memory test (AMT). A dose of ten milligrams of hydrocortisone (Hoechst) or placebo was administered orally 1 hour

Cortisol levels

The participants showed a significant increase (t(21) = −4.45, p < 0.0001) in free cortisol one hour after administration of 10 mg hydrocortisone (mean ± SEM: 99.13 ± 20.44 nmol/l) when compared to their baseline levels (10.01 ± 0.74 nmol/l).

Cognitive tests

Following hydrocortisone administration retrieval performance in the AMT was significantly impaired (t(21) = −3.59, p = 0.002) indicated by fewer specific memories (4.45 ± 0.35) than following placebo administration (5.22 ± 0.23). A within-subject ANOVA

Discussion

Previous experimental studies in humans have reported that recall of words (declarative memory) is impaired after cortisol administration (de Quervain et al., 2000, Wolf et al., 2001). The current study extends these findings to the domain of autobiographical memory. The hippocampus has been considered to play a crucial role in both the storage and retrieval of information, and the individual’s orientation within a given spatial, temporal and subjective environment (Hellhammer, 1983, Nadel et

Acknowledgments

For providing the autobiographic memory test we thank the research group of Dr. Renate de Jong-Meyer. The contribution of O.T. Wolf was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (WO 733/2-1,2-2).

References (20)

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