Stress impairs retrieval of socially relevant information.

Several studies have reported that stress impairs memory retrieval, even though findings are not unequivocal. Moreover, memory for socially relevant information was not previously investigated. The present study aimed to test the effects of stress on the retrieval of social memory (e.g., memory concerning names, birthdays, or biographies). In a randomized cross-over experiment, the cognitive performance of 29 subjects (15 women) was tested twice. Social memory was tested in a stress session, in which participants were exposed to a brief standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor between encoding and retrieval. Performance was compared with a stress-free control session. Stress exposure caused an increase in cortisol concentrations and changes in several mood measures. Social memory retrieval was reduced in the stress compared with the control session. An association between the cortisol stress response and poorer retrieval was significant in responders, that is, those participants displaying a cortisol rise after stress onset. Thus, similar to other forms of declarative memory, the retrieval of declarative memory for socially relevant information learned from biographical notes is impaired after acute stress exposure. This effect is linked to the stress-induced cortisol increase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cortisol-Induced Impairments of Working Memory Require Acute Sympathetic Activation.

The present study assessed whether the effects of cortisol on working memory depend on the level of adrenergic activity (as measured by sympathetic activation) during memory performance. After exposure to a psychosocial stress task, participants were divided into cortisol responders and nonresponders. Cortisol responders showed working memory impairments during the psychosocial stress phase, when cortisol and adrenergic activity were enhanced, whereas nonresponders did not. During recovery, however, when cortisol levels were elevated but adrenergic activity was normalized, working memory of responders did not differ from that of nonresponders. Among several stress measures, cortisol was the only significant predictor for working memory performance during stress. These findings suggest that adrenergic activation is essential for the impairing effects of stress-induced cortisol on working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Arousal and cortisol interact in modulating memory consolidation in healthy young men.

Animal studies indicate that adrenal glucocorticoids enhance memory consolidation while impairing memory retrieval. In humans, beneficial effects on consolidation have been observed infrequently. In the current double-blind study, subjects (N = 29) received placebo or cortisol (30 mg) 10 min before viewing emotionally arousing or neutral pictures. Cortisol treatment had no effects on immediate recall. In the 24-hr delayed recall condition, cortisol led to an enhanced emotional memory facilitation because of decreased neutral and increased emotional memory recall. No effects of cortisol treatment were observed for recognition memory or mood. Results support the notion that glucocorticoids specifically enhance the consolidation of emotional material. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimated number of patients with chronic renal failure but not with end-stage renal disease in Japan: comparisons between two estimation methods

BACKGROUND: A significant number of American women of childbearing age are troubled by premenstrual symptoms, but the underlying cause is not understood, resulting in inadequate therapy. OBJECTIVES: To use basal levels of cortisol to differentiate women with low symptom (LS) patterns of turmoil-type premenstrual symptoms from women with premenstrual symptom (PMS) patterns and from women with premenstrual magnification (PMM) patterns of turmoil-type premenstrual symptoms. METHOD: Symptom and cortisol patterns of women were monitored for three consecutive menstrual cycles. Three distinct groups of women were identified based on symptom patterns and types. RESULTS: Significant differences in symptom severity among groups were observed during the follicular (F = 203; df= 2, 24; p < .0001) and luteal phases (F= 51.3; df= 2, 24; p< .0001) of the cycle. There were no statistically significant differences in cortisol among groups for the follicular phase, but there were during the luteal phase (F= 4.0; df= 2, 24; p= .03). CONCLUSIONS: Altered regulation of the stress axis may be involved in mediating turmoil-type PMS.     

Stress-induced eating.

Stress is widely thought to lead to overeating. Studies of stress-induced eating have tested 2 models. One has tested whether stress increases eating in all exposed organisms and has been tested primarily with animals and physical stressors. The other has tested individual differences in vulnerability to stress-induced eating and has tested only human subjects and psychological stressors. The most consistent set of findings shows that "restrained" eating predicts vulnerability among women; the authors conclude that for the stressors studied to date, the individual-difference model has received stronger support. Because the question motivating much of this research is whether stress-induced eating causes obesity, future research should assess the effect of stress on weight-change more directly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress facilitates consolidation of verbal memory for a film but does not affect retrieval.

The effect of psychosocial stress on distinct memory processes was investigated in 157 college students using a brief film, which enabled comparison of verbal and visual memory by using a single complex stimulus. Participants were stressed either following stimuli presentation (consolidation) or before testing 48 hr later (retrieval) and were compared with no-stress controls. Salivary cortisol was measured before and 20 min after stress. The consolidation group significantly outperformed controls on total and verbal film scores. Stress did not impair retrieval relative to controls. Exploratory analyses revealed a significant correlation between cortisol and verbal scores across all groups (r = .18). Results provide the first evidence of a facilitative effect of a stressor on verbal memory, but failed to replicate retrieval findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patients with premenstrual syndrome have a different sensitivity to a neuroactive steroid during the menstrual cycle compared to control subjects

We have evaluated the functional sensitivity to a neuroactive steroid in 12 women with and 12 women without premenstrual syndrome (PMS) at two stages of the menstrual cycle, by comparing the effects of three increasing doses of intravenous pregnanolone (3alpha-hydroxy-5beta-pregnan-20-one) on saccadic eye velocity (SEV) and self-rated sedation. Control subjects in the follicular and luteal phase showed a significant reduction in SEV after pregnanolone injections compared to vehicle. In PMS patients, pregnanolone injections induced a significant dose-related decrease in SEV compared to vehicle only in the follicular phase, not in the luteal phase. After pregnanolone injections, sedation scores increased significantly from vehicle among control subjects in the luteal phase but not among PMS patients in either cycle phase. High-severity PMS patients responded with less decrease in SEV and less increase in sedation scores following pregnanolone injections compared to low-severity patients. Control subjects increased their SEV response to pregnanolone in the luteal phase compared to the follicular phase, whereas PMS patients did not. These findings are compatible with a decreased GABAA-receptor sensitivity in brain areas controlling saccadic eye movements among PMS patients in the late luteal phase.     

Prenatal psychosocial stress exposure is associated with subsequent working memory performance in young women.

The aim of the present study was to examine the association between prenatal psychosocial stress exposure and subsequent prefrontal cortex-dependent working memory performance in human adults. Working memory performance was assessed using an item-recognition task under 10 mg hydrocortisone (cortisol) and placebo conditions in a sample of 32 healthy young women (mean age = 25 ± 4.34 years) whose mothers experienced a major negative life event during their pregnancy (Prenatal Stress, PS group), and in a comparison group of 27 healthy young women (mean age = 24 ± 3.4 years). The two groups did not differ in the placebo condition, however, subjects in the PS group showed longer reaction times after hydrocortisone administration compared with subjects in the comparison group (p = .02). These findings provide support for an association between prenatal stress exposure and the potential modulatory effect of cortisol on working memory performance in young adults, which may reflect compromised development of the prefrontal cortex in prenatal life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Menstrual cycle and premenstrual syndrome: Modifiers of cardiovascular reactivity in women.

15 women prospectively diagnosed with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and 15 non-PMS women were each tested twice for cardiovascular stress reactivity and behavioral performance, once during the follicular phase and once during the luteal phase of their cycle. Although blood pressure and heart rate responses to stress did not differ across the menstrual cycle in either group of women, for the non-PMS women, differences in hemodynamic responses were observed across the 2 phases. The luteal phase was associated with greater stroke volume responses and lesser vascular tone. For the PMS women, none of their cardiovascular measures differed across their cycle. Instead, these women showed significantly attenuated blood pressure and heart rate responses compared with non-PMS women, irrespective of cycle phase. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inverted-U Function Between Salivary Cortisol and Retrieval of Verbal Memory After Hydrocortisone Treatment.

The present study investigated the effect of a single oral dose of hydrocortisone (cortisol) on retrieval of verbal and nonverbal declarative memory. Fifty-nine healthy participants were randomly assigned to either receive 25 mg cortisol or a placebo 45 min before retrieval in a standardized memory test procedure. There was no global effect of cortisol on either verbal or nonverbal memory. However, a specific negative effect on free recall of associative verbal material appeared. In addition, high responders (salivary cortisol concentration > 68.25 nmol/L) exhibited impaired verbal memory compared with low responders (     

Psychoneuroendocrine effects of resource-activating stress management training.

Objective: The stress-induced release of cortisol has been linked to detrimental health outcomes. Therefore, strategies to attenuate cortisol stress responses are of interest for prevention and treatment of stress-related symptoms and problems. Previous studies have found protective effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management training--which focuses on the modification of stress-inducing cognitions--on cortisol stress responses; however, the effects of resource-oriented interventions on cortisol stress responses are unknown. Design: The longitudinal effects of resource-oriented stress management training (Zurich resource model training) on cortisol stress responses and cognitive appraisal of a standardized psychosocial stress test were evaluated in 54 healthy male participants assigned randomly to treatment and control groups. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; C. Kirschbaum, Wust, & Strasburger, 1992) was administered to all participants 3 months after the treatment group underwent stress management training. Main Outcome Measures: Saliva cortisol samples were taken before, during, and after the TSST, and cognitive stress appraisal was assessed before the test. Results: The treatment group had significantly attenuated cortisol responses and stress appraisals in comparison to the control group. The endocrine differences were mediated by differences in cognitive appraisals. Discussion: These results indicate that resource-oriented stress management training effectively reduces endocrine stress responses to stress in healthy adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The luteal phase of nonsupplemented cycles after ovarian superovulation with human menopausal gonadotropin and the gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist Cetrorelix

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the luteal phase of six patients undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) with hMG and a new GnRH antagonist, Cetrorelix, without receiving luteal phase supplementation. DESIGN: Phase II study involving the first six patients who did not receive luteal phase support. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. PATIENT(S): Six healthy women undergoing COH for assisted reproductive techniques. INTERVENTION(S): Oocyte retrieval was performed 36 hours after hCG administration, followed by embryo transfer 2 days later. No luteal phase supplementation was given. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Serum E2, progesterone, LH, and FSH concentrations were measured. RESULT(S): The length of the luteal phase was < or =12 days in three of the six patients. One of the patients in whom the luteal phase was >12 days had a low serum progesterone concentration (2.9 ng/mL) on day 10. Serum LH concentrations decreased after the preovulatory hCG injection in all patients. However, a progressive increase in LH was observed after day 7, reaching normal values. CONCLUSION(S): Corpus luteum function seems to be impaired in cycles that are stimulated with hMG and the GnRH antagonist Cetrorelix.     

The effects of gender, menstrual phase and practice on the perceived location of the midsagittal plane

Women show menstrual phase-related cognitive changes that suggest altered hemispheric activation for a particular task, such that they demonstrate the greatest lateral performance differences on prototypical left hemisphere tasks during the luteal phase and on prototypical right hemisphere tasks during menstruation. Additionally, menstrual phase may alter total cerebral responsiveness, such that response times and performance accuracy for many tasks are best during the luteal phase and most impaired during the menstrual phase. We evaluated the effect of menstrual phase on spatial bisection (a perceptuospatial task) to help further understand hormonally-mediated changes in interhemispheric dynamics. Healthy young adult women and men blindly pointed to their midsagittal plane with either hand. Women were repeatedly tested according to menstrual phase, and men were tested at similar intervals. The mean pointing error in the luteal phase differed significantly from that of all other phases and did not differ significantly from those of men, who pointed significantly to the left across test sessions. These findings suggest that, in space bisection tasks, women are more likely to have asymmetric hemispheric activation during the luteal phase than during the menstrual phase. Thus, space bisection did not resemble other prototypical right hemisphere behaviors. The luteal phase may have nonspecifically activated both hemispheres on this task instead of suppressing right hemisphere function, and a slight functional asymmetry favoring the right hemisphere may have been promoted. In addition, intermanual pointing discrepancies in both subject groups decreased over repeated sessions. This suggests that, while practice alters an internal kinesthetic reference, it does not influence an imaginal extrapersonal spatial reference.     

Steroid hormones, memory and mood in a healthy elderly population

Men (n = 31), women estrogen-users (n = 14), and women estrogen non-users (n = 41), whose average age was 72.1 +/- 5.6 years, were tested with a battery of psychological tests measuring verbal memory, visual memory, concentration and attention, language fluency and semantic memory, and mood. Plasma levels of testosterone (T), estradiol (E2), cortisol (CRT) and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) were assessed by radioimmunoassay. The ratio of DHEAS to CRT was calculated to determine it's relationship to memory functioning. The men had higher T and DHEAS levels than both groups of women. Women estrogen-users had higher E2 levels than both men and estrogen non-users and the men had higher E2 levels and a higher DHEAS/CRT ratio than the estrogen non-users. There were no group differences in CRT levels. Men and estrogen-users had higher total (p < .01) and forward (p < .001) digit span scores compared with non-users. Women estrogen-users also had higher backward digit span scores than non-users (p < .05), while both groups of women performed better than men on category retrieval (p < .01). The implications of these findings with respect to hormonal influences on memory in elderly men and women are discussed.     

Neuroendocrine measures and lymphocyte subsets in depressive illness: influence of a clinical interview concerning life experiences

The effects of a clinical interview concerning either positive or negative day-to-day events on lymphocyte subpopulations, and on plasma cortisol, ACTH and norepinephrine, were determined in depressive patients (major depressive and dysthymic) and in normal controls. Irrespective of its content, the interview provoked an elevation of circulating natural killer (NK) cells, suggesting that this effect was related to either a change in mood state (regardless of its valence) or to the stress associated with the interview procedure. Since the interview did not influence plasma cortisol, ACTH or norepinephrine, it is likely that the NK cell variations were independent of these endocrines. Although basal NK cells were elevated in the depressive group relative to controls, the extent of the NK cell increase provoked by the interview was comparable in depressive and control subjects. The failure to detect differences between these populations could not be attributed to ceiling effects precluding more pronounced alterations in the depressed subjects. Indeed, variations of circulating cell subtypes were found to be exquisitely sensitive to differences in stressor intensity. In a subset of control subjects, a more potent stressor (anticipation of an academic examination) increased the plasma endocrine levels, increased circulating NK cell number beyond that associated with the interview stress, and provoked an increase of several T cell subsets (CD3, CD4 and CD8). Evidently, while a clinical interview may be sufficiently stressful to influence circulating NK cells, the stress of such a procedure seems no greater in depressed than in control subjects. It is suggested that although depressed patients may exhibit higher basal NK levels, this effect is likely not related to increased reactivity to stressors.     

Opposing effects of DHEA replacement in elderly subjects on declarative memory and attention after exposure to a laboratory stressor

Aging is accompanied by a continuous decline of the adrenal steroid hormone DHEA and its ester DHEAS. Results from studies in rodents have demonstrated that DHEA(S) administration can enhance memory in several test paradigms. However studies from this laboratory did not find positive effects of DHEA treatment on cognitive performance in young and elderly humans. With respect to a possible mechanism of DHEA activity, effects on several neurotransmitter receptors as well as a possible antiglucocorticoid action are discussed. For high levels of glucocorticoids, a disruptive effect on hippocampal mediated memory is documented in rodents and humans. Therefore it was speculated that, if an antiglucocorticoid action of DHEA would underlie the observed beneficial effects of DHEA on memory, these effects might only be detectable if subjects are stressed (and therefore have high cortisol levels). To test this hypothesis 75 elderly women and men participated in a placebo controlled experiment. Subjects took DHEA (50 mg/day) or placebo for 2 weeks (double blind). Thereafter they participated in a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST). Before and after stress exposure subjects completed two declarative memory tests (visual-verbal and spatial) as well as one attention test. In addition recall of visual material learned before stress was assessed after stress. Baseline DHEAS levels were significantly lower compared with young adults. DHEA replacement increased DHEAS levels into ranges found in young subjects. DHEA-substituted subjects showed a trend towards a larger cortisol stress response. In the visual memory test subjects under DHEA recalled less items after stress which they had learned before stress. In the attention test however subjects under DHEA performed better than subjects from the placebo group after stress. No interaction between stress and DHEA was found for the spatial memory task. The effects of DHEA substitution on memory and attention after stress exposure seem to be heterogenous. While recall of previously learned material seems to be impaired, attention is enhanced. These results do not support the idea of a direct antiglucocorticoid or anti-stress effect of DHEA on hippocampal mediated memory functions.     

Elastase binding capacity of alpha 2-macroglobulin and its association with glucocorticoid concentration in southern African black patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Thirty-three Southern African black patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (7 women) and 43 black control individuals (14 women), all in the age group 18-45 years, were investigated for plasma alpha 2-macroglobulin (alpha 2M) elastase binding capacity (EBC). Cortisol levels were measured in 15 (3 women) of the HCC patients and 10 (5 women) of the control subjects. A significant difference in EBC was found between the HCC patients and the control subjects (P < 0.001). A significant difference was also found in cortisol levels between the two groups (P < 0.001). A significant correlation between EBC and cortisol levels was obtained (r = 0.57; P < 0.042). The significant increase in EBC of alpha 2M in HCC patients could be due to an increase in circulating cortisol.     

Effect of menstrual cycle phase on neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to the serotonin agonist m-chlorophenylpiperazine in women with premenstrual syndrome and controls

To evaluate the potential role of serotonin in the premenstrual syndrome (PMS), we investigated the effects of menstrual cycle phase on neuroendocrine and behavioral responses to the serotonergic agent m-chlorophenylpiperazine (m-CPP) in women with PMS and controls. A single oral dose of m-CPP (0.5 mg/kg) was administered to 10 PMS patients and 10 healthy controls during the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle. We observed the following. m-CPP administration during the luteal phase resulted in an acute improvement of PMS symptoms; the plasma cortisol and ACTH responses to m-CPP were blunted in both menstrual cycle phases in PMS patients compared with controls. These data provide evidence for the acute efficacy of m-CPP in the treatment of PMS. Although there is additional evidence for dysregulation of either the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis or serotonin control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in women with PMS, there is little evidence for luteal phase-specific serotonergic dysfunction. These findings, nonetheless, implicate the serotonin system as a modulating (not causal) factor in PMS.     

Long-term outcomes of memory retrieval under stress.

Previous studies have found impairing effects of stress hormones on memory retrieval. So far, it is unknown whether these impairments are temporary, persistent throughout time, or whether the strength of the memory trace changes after retrieval because of the effects of stress hormones on memory processes during retrieval. In the present study, delayed cued recall (6 months after initial learning) was compared between male participants who had retrieved previously learned word pairs during stress or a control condition. Retrieval (with or without stress) had taken place either 1 day or 5 weeks after initial encoding. The group that had retrieved words under stress 5 weeks after encoding performed worse on long-term recall than the comparable control group. However, when words were retrieved under stress 1 day after encoding, no long-term effect was found, although performance at 6 months in relation to performance under stress was slightly increased compared to the control group. These results support previous findings in animals that stress may affect memory during reactivation. It further suggests that time intervals between encoding and reactivation may play an important role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood changes in response to psychosocial stress in healthy young women: Effects of pretreatment with cortisol.

Effects of cortisol on human mood during stress situations are still incompletely understood, although this topic has important clinical implications. In this experiment, the mood of 44 healthy young women (all oral contraceptive users) was examined. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled time series paradigm was used. Subjects were treated with either 30-mg cortisol or placebo orally. Forty-five minutes later, subjects attended a psychosocial stress procedure (Trier Social Stress Test; TSST; C. Kirschbaum, K. M. Pirke, & D. H. Hellhammer, 1993). The course of the subjects' mood as well as salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase levels were measured before and after the TSST. With regard to mood, it was found that the groups did not differ in mood before the TSST. After stress exposure, the subjective ratings of current mood state of cortisol-treated women were significantly less negative than that of placebo-treated subjects. These findings show that raising cortisol levels prior to acute stress has a protective effect on mood during stress situations. Results are discussed with regard to the context of specific adaptive effects of cortisol and the role of cortisol in posttraumatic stress disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)