title: Sex, age, and sex hormones affect recall of words in a directed forgetting paradigm.
abstract: During the course of serious discussion, an unexpected interruption may induce forgetting of the original topic of a conversation. Sex, age, and sex hormone levels may affect frequency and extension of forgetting. In a list-method directed forgetting paradigm, subjects have to learn two word lists. After learning list 1, subjects receive either a forget or a remember list 1 cue. When the participants had learned list 2 and completed a distraction task, they were asked to write down as many recalled items as possible, starting either with list 1 or list 2 items. In the present study, 96 naturally cycling women, 60 oral contraceptive users, 56 postmenopausal women, and 41 young men were assigned to one of these different experimental conditions. Forget-cued young subjects recall fewer list 1 items (list 1 forgetting) but more list 2 items (list 2 enhancement) compared with remember-cued subjects. However, forget-cued postmenopausal women showed reduced list 1 forgetting but enhanced list 2 retention. Remember-cued naturally cycling women recalled more list 1 items than oral contraceptive users, young men, and postmenopausal women. In forget-cued follicular women, salivary progesterone correlated positively with recalled list 2 items. Salivary 17β-estradiol did not correlate with recalled list 1 or list 2 items in either remember- or forget-cued young women. However, salivary 17β-estradiol correlated with item recall in remember-cued postmenopausal women. Our findings suggest that sex hormones do not globally modulate verbal memory or forgetting, but selectively affect cue-specific processing. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.|Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience Salzburg (CCNS), University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Hubert H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kerschbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Ildiko
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hofbauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gföllner
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ebner
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bresgen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Regensburg University, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Karl-Heinz T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Bäuml
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D004958:Estradiol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011374:Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism*; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology; D014825:Vocabulary; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D011374:Progesterone; D004958:Estradiol
keywords: cognitive aging; estradiol; estrogen; learning and memory