Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories
Stress can modulate episodic memory in various ways. The present study asks how post-encoding stress affects visual context memory. Participants encoded object images centrally positioned on background scenes. After encoding, they were either exposed to cold pressure stress (CPS) or a warm water con...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Brain Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/6/358 |
| _version_ | 1797565768417673216 |
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| author | Matthew Sabia Almut Hupbach |
| author_facet | Matthew Sabia Almut Hupbach |
| author_sort | Matthew Sabia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Stress can modulate episodic memory in various ways. The present study asks how post-encoding stress affects visual context memory. Participants encoded object images centrally positioned on background scenes. After encoding, they were either exposed to cold pressure stress (CPS) or a warm water control procedure. Forty-right hours later, participants were cued with object images, and for each image, they were asked to select the background scene with which it was paired during study among three highly similar options. Only male but not female participants reacted with a significant increase in salivary cortisol to CPS, and the stress and control group did not differ in recognition performance. Comparing recognition performance between stress responders and non-responders, however, revealed a significant impairment in context memory in responders. Additionally, proportional increase in cortisol was negatively correlated with the number of correctly recognized scenes in responders. Due to the small number of responders, these findings need to be interpreted with caution but provide preliminary evidence that stress-induced cortisol increase negatively affects the consolidation of contextual elements of episodic memories. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T19:17:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-253fd433fccb45119bf94cb5f8a04554 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3425 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T19:17:40Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Brain Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-253fd433fccb45119bf94cb5f8a045542023-11-20T03:15:23ZengMDPI AGBrain Sciences2076-34252020-06-0110635810.3390/brainsci10060358Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic MemoriesMatthew Sabia0Almut Hupbach1Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USADepartment of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USAStress can modulate episodic memory in various ways. The present study asks how post-encoding stress affects visual context memory. Participants encoded object images centrally positioned on background scenes. After encoding, they were either exposed to cold pressure stress (CPS) or a warm water control procedure. Forty-right hours later, participants were cued with object images, and for each image, they were asked to select the background scene with which it was paired during study among three highly similar options. Only male but not female participants reacted with a significant increase in salivary cortisol to CPS, and the stress and control group did not differ in recognition performance. Comparing recognition performance between stress responders and non-responders, however, revealed a significant impairment in context memory in responders. Additionally, proportional increase in cortisol was negatively correlated with the number of correctly recognized scenes in responders. Due to the small number of responders, these findings need to be interpreted with caution but provide preliminary evidence that stress-induced cortisol increase negatively affects the consolidation of contextual elements of episodic memories.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/6/358human memory consolidationpost-encoding stressitem-context bindingcontext memory |
| spellingShingle | Matthew Sabia Almut Hupbach Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories Brain Sciences human memory consolidation post-encoding stress item-context binding context memory |
| title | Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories |
| title_full | Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories |
| title_fullStr | Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories |
| title_short | Stress-Induced Increase in Cortisol Negatively Affects the Consolidation of Contextual Elements of Episodic Memories |
| title_sort | stress induced increase in cortisol negatively affects the consolidation of contextual elements of episodic memories |
| topic | human memory consolidation post-encoding stress item-context binding context memory |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/6/358 |
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