title: Glucocorticoids interact with noradrenergic activation at encoding to enhance long-term memory for emotional material in women.
abstract: Evidence from the animal literature suggests that post-training glucocorticoids (GCs) interact with noradrenergic activation at acquisition to enhance memory consolidation for emotional stimuli. While there is evidence that GCs enhance memory for emotional material in humans, the extent to which this depends on noradrenergic activation at encoding has not been explored. In this study, 20-mg hydrocortisone was administered to healthy young women (18-35 yrs old) in a double-blind fashion 10 min prior to viewing a series of emotional and neutral images. Saliva samples were taken at baseline, 10 min after drug or placebo administration, immediately after viewing the images, 10, 20, and 30 min after viewing the images. Participants returned 1 week later for a surprise recall test. Results suggest that, hydrocortisone administration resulted in emotional memory enhancement only in participants who displayed an increase in endogenous noradrenergic activation, measured via salivary alpha-amylase at encoding. These results support findings in the animal literature, and suggest that GC-induced memory enhancement relies on noradrenergic activation at encoding in women.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: ssegal2@asu.edu.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Segal
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: robertelliots@cox.net.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: smcfarli@uci.edu.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McFarlin
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: malkire@uci.edu.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alkire
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: akdesai@uci.edu.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Desai
authors.affiliation: Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92627, United States. Electronic address: lfcahill@uci.edu.
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Cahill
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D057567:Memory, Long-Term / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult; D000516:alpha-Amylases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D000516:alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: alpha-amylase; emotion; glucocorticoids; hydrocortisone; memory; noradrenergic activation