Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 41, Issue 34, Pages 7259-7266Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0096-21.2021
Keywords
cortisol; memory; reconsolidation
Categories
Funding
- Pierre Mercier foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundation [PZ00P1_137126, PZ00P1_160861, PCEFP1_186911, 320030_159862, 320030_182589]
- European Community [334360]
- National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Affective Sciences
- Academic Society of Geneva (Foremane Fund)
- Ernst and Lucie Schmidheiny Foundation
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [PCEFP1_186911, PZ00P1_137126, 320030_182589, 320030_159862, PZ00P1_160861] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
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Evidence from a study suggests that in humans, when memories are reactivated and immediately followed by suppression of cortisol levels, reconsolidation processes change in a way that leads to the strengthening of the reactivated memories.
Evidence from animal and human research shows that established memories can undergo changes after reactivation through a process called reconsolidation. Alterations of the level of the stress hormone cortisol may provide a way to manipulate reconsolidation in humans. Here, in a double-blind, within-subject design, we reactivated a 3-d-old memory at 3:55 A.M. in sixteen men and four women, immediately followed by oral administration of metyrapone versus placebo, to examine whether metyrapone-induced suppression of the morning cortisol rise may influence reconsolidation processes during and after early morning sleep. Crucially, reactivation followed by cortisol suppression versus placebo resulted in enhanced memory for the reactivated episode tested 4 d after reactivation. This enhancement after cortisol suppression was specific for the reactivated episode versus a non-reactivated episode. These findings suggest that when reactivation of memories is immediately followed by suppression of cortisol levels during early morning sleep in humans, reconsolidation processes change in a way that leads to the strengthening of episodic memory traces.
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