title: Intentional updating in episodic memory: Low testosterone associates with enhanced memory updating.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although there is consensus that sex hormones modulate memory, we have an incomplete understanding of their role in remembering and forgetting. Humans continuously update memory, forgetting old, out-of-date information and encoding new, more relevant information. Updating processes can be studied with the list method of directed forgetting.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the list method of directed forgetting task, subjects study two lists of items and, after study of list 1, are asked to either forget or remember the list for an upcoming memory test. Free testosterone level was quantified from saliva samples. Directed forgetting and saliva testosterone were evaluated in young men (aged between 18 and 28 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following a forget cue, recall of list-1 items was reduced and recall of list-2 items was enhanced. However, only recall of list-2 items was associated with free testosterone level. Following a forget cue, participants with low testosterone levels showed higher recall of list-2 items than participants with high testosterone levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The selective association between testosterone level and list-2 recall is consistent with two-mechanism accounts of memory updating, where the forgetting effect is due to impaired retrieval and the enhancement effect to improved encoding. On the basis of this view, the present results indicate that low testosterone levels are associated with improved binding of the newly encoded memories to their context cue.
authors: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors: Lili
authors: L
authors: Sterzer
authors: Laboratory for Sleep, Cognition and Consciousness Research, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors: Manuel
authors: M
authors: Schabus
authors: Department of Psychology, Regensburg University, Regensburg, Austria.
authors: Karl-Heinz T
authors: KH
authors: Bäuml
authors: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg (CCNS), University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors: Hubert H
authors: HH
authors: Kerschbaum
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone