Acute stress, but not corticosterone, facilitates acquisition of paired associates learning in rats using touchscreen-equipped operant conditioning chambers

Roebuck, Andrew J.; Liu, Max C.; Lins, Brittney R.; Scott, Gavin A.; Howland, John G.

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2018.04.027

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Therefore, other brain structures which are related with catecholamine responses (e.g., the prefrontal cortex or the locus coeruleus; [ 64 , 65 , 66 ]) do not seem to be of particular importance during the acquisition phase of the associative learning task that has been used in our study. However, this would be in contrast to the findings of Roebuck and colleagues, who found that acute stress, but not corticosterone injections, led to an improvement in associative learning in rats [ 67 ]. Therefore, the associations between glucocorticoid levels during the acquisition phase of implicit memory tasks should be further investigated in future research.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

Associations between Attention and Implicit Associative Learning in Healthy Adults: The Role of Cortisol and Salivary Alpha-Amylase Responses to an Acute Stressor

Becker

Rohleder

2020

Brain Sciences

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In this study, we investigated the associations between implicit associative learning with the cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) stress response to an acute stressor as well as their associations with attention. Eighty one healthy adults (25 male) participated and either performed the socially evaluated cold-pressor test (SECPT) or a warm-water control task (WWT). Either prior to or immediately after the SECPT/WWT, participants implicitly learned digit-symbol pairs. A not-previously announced recall test was conducted about 20 min after the SECPT/WWT. Attention was assessed by means of a Stroop task at nine time points over the course of the experiment. Memory recall performance was not significantly associated with the acquisition time point (pre or post stressor) and did not significantly differ between the responder groups (i.e., non-responders, sAA-and-cortisol responders, only sAA responders, and only cortisol responders). Attentional performance increased throughout the experiment (i.e., reaction times in the Stroop task decreased). No differences in the attentional time course were found between the responder groups. However, some associations were found (puncorrected < 0.05) that did not pass the multiple comparison adjusted alpha level of αadjusted = 0.002, indicating different associations between attention and implicit learning between the responder groups. We conclude that the associations of sAA and cortisol responses with implicit learning are complex and are related to each other. Further studies in which both (sAA and cortisol responses) are selectively (de-) activated are needed. Furthermore, different learning tasks and less—potentially stressful—attentional assessments should be used in future research. Moreover, field studies are needed in which the associations between acute stress and implicit associative learning are investigated in everyday life.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 81%

Associations between Attention and Implicit Associative Learning in Healthy Adults: The Role of Cortisol and Salivary Alpha-Amylase Responses to an Acute Stressor

Becker

Rohleder

2020

Brain Sciences

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“…Correction trials have previously been used as a measure of cognitive flexibility (Lins, Phillips, and Howland 2015;Lins and Howland 2016). The combined increase in selection trials, enhanced reduction in correction trials, and lower latencies can also be considered an indication of a general increase in task efficiency (Roebuck et al 2018). In brief, runners performed PAL reversal learning faster and more flexibly than sedentary controls, if not more accurately.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adult neurogenesis mediates forgetting of multiple types of memory in the rat

Scott

Terstege

Roebuck

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The formation and retention of hippocampus-dependent memories is impacted by neurogenesis, a process that involves the production of new neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Recent studies demonstrate that increasing neurogenesis after memory formation induces forgetting of previously acquired memories. Neurogenesis-induced forgetting was originally demonstrated in mice, but a recent report suggests that the same effect may be absent in rats. Although a general species difference is possible, other potential explanations for these incongruent findings are that memories which are more strongly reinforced become resilient to forgetting or that perhaps only certain types of memories are affected. Here, we investigated whether neurogenesis-induced forgetting occurs in rats using several hippocampal dependent tasks including contextual fear conditioning (CFC), the Morris Water Task (MWT), and touchscreen paired associates learning (PAL). Neurogenesis was increased following training using voluntary exercise for 4 weeks before recall of the previous memory was assessed. We show that voluntary running causes forgetting of context fear memories in a neurogenesis-dependent manner, and that neurogenesis-induced forgetting is present in rats across behavioral tasks despite differences in complexity or reliance on spatial, context, or object memories. In addition, we asked whether stronger memories are less susceptible to forgetting by varying the strength of training. Even with a very strong training protocol in the CFC task, we still observed enhanced forgetting related to increased neurogenesis. These results suggest that forgetting due to neurogenesis is a conserved mechanism that aids in the clearance of memories.

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“…Although acute stress induced significant impairments of synaptic plasticity in the rat dorsal subiculum through a glucocorticoid receptor‐mediated process, glucocorticoid treatment alone was insufficient to reproduce this synaptic phenomenon (MacDougall & Howland, ). These data suggest potential synergistic effects of additional neurochemical cascades induced by stress, for example, catecholamines (Roebuck, Liu, Lins, Scott, & Howland, ), which may act in concert with glucocorticoids to drive modifications in synaptic function. Nevertheless, MacDougall and Howland () neither quantified nor speculated upon the effects of CORT on astrocytes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Stress‐induced structural and functional modifications of astrocytes—Further implicating glia in the central response to stress

Murphy-Royal

Gordon

Bains

2019

Glia

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An organism's response to stress requires activation of multiple brain regions. This can have long‐lasting effects on synaptic transmission and plasticity that likely provide adaptive benefits. Recent evidence implicates not only neurones, but also glial cells in the regulation of the central response to stress. Intense, repeated or uncontrolled stress has been implicated in the emergence of multiple neuropsychiatric conditions. Human studies have consistently observed glial dysfunction in mood and stress disorders such as major depression. Interestingly animal models of stress have recapitulated glial abnormalities that are comparable to the human condition, validating the use of rodent models for the study of stress disorders. In this review we will focus upon one family of glia, the astrocytes, and describe the evidence to date that links astrocytes to possible stress‐related disorders.

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Acute stress, but not corticosterone, facilitates acquisition of paired associates learning in rats using touchscreen-equipped operant conditioning chambers

Cited by 16 publications

References 43 publications

Associations between Attention and Implicit Associative Learning in Healthy Adults: The Role of Cortisol and Salivary Alpha-Amylase Responses to an Acute Stressor

Associations between Attention and Implicit Associative Learning in Healthy Adults: The Role of Cortisol and Salivary Alpha-Amylase Responses to an Acute Stressor

Adult neurogenesis mediates forgetting of multiple types of memory in the rat

Stress‐induced structural and functional modifications of astrocytes—Further implicating glia in the central response to stress

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