Oral cortisol impairs implicit sequence learning

Römer, Sonja; Schulz, André; Richter, Steffen; Lass‐Hennemann, Johanna; Schächinger, Hartmut

doi:10.1007/s00213-010-2112-4

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…For example, a study by Frank et al (2006) showed that the benzodiazepine midazolam, which inactivates the hippocampus, causes explicit memory deficits in healthy participants, but enhances implicit learning. In contrast, a more recent study found impaired implicit learning after the exogenous administration of the stress hormone cortisol (Römer et al, 2011). The engagement of specific brain structures in these phenomena needs to be clarified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Predicting the future: From implicit learning to consolidation

Janacsek

Németh

2012

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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Sequence learning can be differentiated according to phases (rapid and slower), modalities (perceptual and motor), and whether or not it is conscious (implicit and explicit). Implicit sequence learning occurs when information is acquired from an environment of complex stimuli without conscious access either to what was learned or to the fact that learning occurred. In everyday life, this learning mechanism is crucial for adapting to the environment and for predicting events unconsciously. Implicit sequence learning underlies not only motor, but also cognitive and social skills; it is therefore an important aspect of life from infancy to old age. Moreover, this kind of learning does not occur only during practice, in the so-called online periods, but also between practice periods, during the so-called offline periods. The process that occurs during the offline periods is referred to as consolidation, which denotes the stabilization of a memory trace after the initial acquisition; this can result in increased resistance to interference or even improvement in performance following an offline period. Understanding the multiple aspects and influencing factors of consolidation can help us to reveal the nature of memory and changes in brain plasticity. Our review focuses on how consolidation varies with factors such as awareness, the length of offline periods, the type of information to be learned, and the age of participants. We highlight that consolidation is not a single process; instead, there are multiple mechanisms in the offline period, which are differently influenced by these factors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Predicting the future: From implicit learning to consolidation

Janacsek

Németh

2012

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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“…There are only a few studies investigating the effects of cortisol on implicit memory processes and these showed mixed results [36], [37], [38], [39]. However, as described above, intrusions are thought to rely on implicit memory processes, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Acute Cortisol Administration on Perceptual Priming of Trauma-Related Material

et al. 2014

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Intrusive memories are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They reflect excessive and uncontrolled retrieval of the traumatic memory. Acute elevations of cortisol are known to impair the retrieval of already stored memory information. Thus, continuous cortisol administration might help in reducing intrusive memories in PTSD. Strong perceptual priming for neutral stimuli associated with a “traumatic” context has been shown to be one important learning mechanism that leads to intrusive memories. However, the memory modulating effects of cortisol have only been shown for explicit declarative memory processes. Thus, in our double blind, placebo controlled study we aimed to investigate whether cortisol influences perceptual priming of neutral stimuli that appeared in a “traumatic” context. Two groups of healthy volunteers (N = 160) watched either neutral or “traumatic” picture stories on a computer screen. Neutral objects were presented in between the pictures. Memory for these neutral objects was tested after 24 hours with a perceptual priming task and an explicit memory task. Prior to memory testing half of the participants in each group received 25 mg of cortisol, the other half received placebo. In the placebo group participants in the “traumatic” stories condition showed more perceptual priming for the neutral objects than participants in the neutral stories condition, indicating a strong perceptual priming effect for neutral stimuli presented in a “traumatic” context. In the cortisol group this effect was not present: Participants in the neutral stories and participants in the “traumatic” stories condition in the cortisol group showed comparable priming effects for the neutral objects. Our findings show that cortisol inhibits perceptual priming for neutral stimuli that appeared in a “traumatic” context. These findings indicate that cortisol influences PTSD-relevant memory processes and thus further support the idea that administration of cortisol might be an effective treatment strategy in reducing intrusive reexperiencing.

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“…To date, only three studies focused on how stress alters the detection and extraction of different types of regularities from the environment (Römer et al, 2011;King, 2013;Dolfen et al, 2019). In the present study, we aimed to get a better understanding of how stress influences the simultaneous acquisition of statistical and sequential regularities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…To the best of our knowledge, only a handful of studies investigated the effect of stress on the acquisition of statistical or sequential regularities (Römer et al, 2011;King, 2013;Dolfen et al, 2019). In King's (2013) study, participants were exposed to a statistical regularity without being aware that learning were taking place.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stressed participants showed overall enhanced learning in accuracy. Regarding the acquisition of sequential regularities, Römer et al (2011) examined the effect of exogenous cortisol administration on sequence learning. While both the cortisol and placebo groups showed significant sequence learning, cortisol changed the time course of learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Regularity extraction under stress: boosted statistical learning but unaffected sequence learning

Tóth-Fáber

Janacsek

Szöllősi

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Acute stress can crucially influence learning and memory processes. A growing body of evidence shows that stress can induce a shift from cognitively demanding goal-directed to habitual, procedural forms of learning. However, the mechanisms underlying the shift are not yet understood. Here, we aimed to get an in-depth look into the effect of stress on the acquisition of procedural information with disentangling two aspects of procedural learning.We examined whether and how stress affects (1) processes and learning of probability-based information and (2) serial order-based information in the same experimental design, and (3) explicit access to the acquired information. Considering statistical learning, based on prior results, we primarily focused on the early phases of the task. We induced stress with the Socially Evaluated Cold Pressor Test in 27 young adults, while 26 participants were enrolled in the control group. Salivary cortisol levels and subjective ratings of affective states showed successful stress induction. After the stress induction, we measured procedural learning with the cued Alternating Serial Reaction Time task. We found that stress promoted the acquisition of probability-based information and did not alter the learning of order-based information.Post-block reports showed weaker explicit access to the order-based information in the stress group. Our results are in line with the theory of stress-induced memory shift and give a process-level understanding on how stress alters procedural learning.

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Oral cortisol impairs implicit sequence learning

Cited by 12 publications

References 42 publications

Predicting the future: From implicit learning to consolidation

Predicting the future: From implicit learning to consolidation

Effects of Acute Cortisol Administration on Perceptual Priming of Trauma-Related Material

Regularity extraction under stress: boosted statistical learning but unaffected sequence learning

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