Changes in blood glucose and salivary cortisol are not necessary for arousal to enhance memory in young or older adults

Gore, Jane B.; Krebs, Desiree L.; Parent, Marise B.

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.12.007

Cited by 12 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…The finding that the emotional memory enhancement effect in the present research was found both under conditions where significant changes in blood glucose were observed (i.e., the glucose condition) and where no changes in blood glucose levels were found (i.e., the aspartame condition in Experiment 1) also supports the findings that changes in blood glucose levels are not necessary for emotional arousal to enhance recognition memory [23]. This tentatively suggests an independent relationship between blood glucose levels and the recognition of words with emotional valence, a suggestion which is further supported by the finding in the present research of a marginal effect showing that overall recognition memory was greater under conditions of glucose administration than the control group.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

The effects of glucose dose and dual-task performance on memory for emotional material☆

Brandt

Sünram-Lea

Jenkinson

et al. 2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

The effects of glucose dose and dual-task performance on memory for emotional material☆

Brandt

Sünram-Lea

Jenkinson

et al. 2010

Behavioural Brain Research

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“…In humans, pre-learning blockade of central b-adrenergic receptors or pre-learning glucocorticoid synthesis inhibition impairs long-term declarative memory for emotionally arousing material (Cahill et al, 1994;Maheu et al, 2004), whereas pre-learning or postlearning stimulation of the noradrenergic or glucocorticoid systems enhances it (Abercrombie et al, 2003;Buchanan & Lovallo, 2001;Cahill & Alkire, 2003). Although psycholog-ical and biological explanations of the arousal hypothesis were used to explain the positive effects of emotion on memory function, research performed to this day shows that arousal is significant as an intervening variable only when the source of the arousal (in this case, the emotionally arousing event) is directly related to the information to be remembered (Gore, Krebs, & Parent, 2006;Kuhlmann & Wolf, 2006). However, when the source of emotion is not directly related to the information to be remembered, other psychological and biological mechanisms come into play and have a stronger impact on memory function than arousal itself.…”

Section: Mechanisms Underlying Memory For Emotionally Arousing Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of stress and stress hormones on human cognition: Implications for the field of brain and cognition

Lupien

Maheu

et al. 2007

Brain and Cognition

1,178

857

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In this review, we report on studies that have assessed the effects of exogenous and endogenous increases in stress hormones on human cognitive performance. We first describe the history of the studies on the effects of using exogenous stress hormones such as glucocorticoids as anti-inflammatory medications on human cognition and mental health. Here, we summarize the cases that led to the diagnosis of glucocorticoid-induced 'steroid psychosis' in human populations and which demonstrated that these stress hormones could thus cross the blood-brain barrier and access the brain where they could influence cognition and mental health. We then summarize studies that assessed the effects of the exogenous administration of glucocorticoids on cognitive performance supported by the hippocampus, the frontal lobes and amygdala. In the second section of the paper, we summarize the effects of the endogenous release of glucocorticoids induced by exposure to a stressful situation on human cognition and we further dissociate the effects of emotion from those of stress on human learning and memory. Finally, in the last section of the paper, we discuss the potential impact that the environmental context to which we expose participants when assessing their memory could have on their reactivity to stress and subsequent cognitive performance. In order to make our point, we discuss the field of memory and aging and we suggest that some of the 'age-related memory impairments' observed in the literature could be partly due to increased stress reactivity in older adults to the environmental context of testing. We also discuss the inverse negative correlations reported between hippocampal volume and memory for young and older adults and suggest that these inverse correlations could be partly due to the effects of contextual stress in young and older adults, as a function of age-related differences in hippocampal volume.

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“…However, in this study, no memory enhancement effect was observed for the emotionally arousing items, relative to neutral items . By contrast, memory enhancement for emotionally laden pictures in the absence of observable changes in blood glucose or salivary cortisol concentrations has been reported (Gore et al, 2006). Further, the question of whether oral glucose ingestion can confer an additional memory enhancement for emotionally laden to-be-remembered items has also been investigated.…”

Section: The Emotional Memory Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glucose enhancement of human memory: A comprehensive research review of the glucose memory facilitation effect

Smith

Riby

Eekelen

et al. 2011

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

134

123

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The brain relies upon glucose as its primary fuel. In recent years, a rich literature has developed from both human and animal studies indicating that increases in circulating blood glucose can facilitate cognitive functioning. This phenomenon has been termed the 'glucose memory facilitation effect'. The purpose of this review is to discuss a number of salient studies which have investigated the influence of glucose ingestion on neurocognitive performance in individuals with a) compromised neurocognitive capacity, as well as b) normally functioning individuals (with a focus on research conducted with human participants). The proposed neurocognitive mechanisms purported to underlie the modulatory effect of glucose on neurocognitive performance will also be considered. Many theories have focussed upon the hippocampus, given that this brain region is heavily implicated in learning and memory. Further, it will be suggested that glucose is a possible mechanism underlying the phenomenon that enhanced memory performance is typically observed for emotionally laden stimuli.

show abstract

Changes in blood glucose and salivary cortisol are not necessary for arousal to enhance memory in young or older adults

Cited by 12 publications

References 96 publications

The effects of glucose dose and dual-task performance on memory for emotional material☆

The effects of glucose dose and dual-task performance on memory for emotional material☆

The effects of stress and stress hormones on human cognition: Implications for the field of brain and cognition

Glucose enhancement of human memory: A comprehensive research review of the glucose memory facilitation effect

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