title: Acute stress affects free recall and recognition of pictures differently depending on age and sex.
abstract: Little is known about age differences in the effects of stress on memory retrieval. Our aim was to perform an in-depth examination of acute psychosocial stress effects on memory retrieval, depending on age and sex. For this purpose, data from 52 older subjects (27 men and 25 women) were reanalyzed along with data from a novel group of 50 young subjects (26 men and 24 women). Participants were exposed to an acute psychosocial stress task (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control task. After the experimental manipulation, the retrieval of positive, negative and neutral pictures learned the previous day was tested. As expected, there was a significant response to the exposure to the stress task, but the older participants had a lower cortisol response to TSST than the younger ones. Stress impaired free recall of emotional (positive and negative) and neutral pictures only in the group of young men. Also in this group, correlation analyses showed a marginally significant association between cortisol and free recall. However, exploratory analyses revealed only a negative relationship between the stress-induced cortisol response and free recall of negative pictures. Moreover, stress impaired recognition memory of positive pictures in all participants, although this effect was not related to the cortisol or alpha-amylase response. These results indicate that both age and sex are critical factors in acute stress effects on specific aspects of long-term memory retrieval of emotional and neutral material. They also point out that more research is needed to better understand their specific role.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain. Electronic address: Vanesa.Hidalgo@uv.es.
authors.forename: Vanesa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Matias M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Pulopulos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Puig-Perez
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Espin
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Anatomy and Psychobiology, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gomez-Amor
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Valencia, 46010 Valencia, Spain.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salvador
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases / Q000378:metabolism; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological
chemical_list: D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Age; Alpha-amylase; Cortisol; Memory retrieval; Sex; Stress