 |
| Research article summary (published 30 Jan 2002): |
Moderate psychosocial stress appears not to impair recall of words learned 4 weeks prior to stress exposure.
Full Abstract
Recent studies in humans have reported that recall of previously learned material is especially sensitive to the disruptive effects of pharmacologically induced cortisol elevations. Whether similar effects occur after exposure to psychosocial stress remains to be shown. Moreover it is unknown whether stress before or after the initial learning interacts with the later effects of repeated stress on delayed recall (e.g. state-dependent learning). Forty subjects participated in the present experiment. They learned a word list either one hour before or 10 min after exposure to a psychosocial laboratory stressor. Delayed recall was tested 4 weeks later, again either before or after stress. Salivary cortisol levels increased significantly in response to both stress exposures. Stress had no effects on the initial learning and also did not impair delayed recall. Moreover there was no evidence for state-dependent learning. The current data seem to be in conflict with previous studies demonstrating that delayed recall is especially sensitive to elevated cortisol levels. Several reasons for these discrepancies are discussed. Among them is the small sample size, the moderate cortisol increase in response to the second stress exposure but also the long recall delay, which might lead to memory traces less susceptible to stress.
Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills
Author information
Author/s: Wolf, Oliver T (OT); Schommer, Nicole C (NC); Hellhammer, Dirk H (DH); Reischies, Friedel M (FM); Kirschbaum, Clemens (C);
Affiliation: Institute of Experimental Psychology II, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany. oliver.wolf@uni-duesseldorf.de
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (Stress), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Feb; vol 5 (issue 1) : pp 59-64
Dates: Created 2002/08/12; Completed 2002/12/04; Revised 2006/11/15;
PMID: 12171768, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
|
|
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.