Suppressing the morning rise in cortisol impairs free recall
- 1Department of Neuroendocrinology, University of Lübeck, Lüebeck 23562, Germany
- 2Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
- 3Institute of Human Movement Sciences and Sport, ETH Zurich CH-8092, Switzerland
Abstract
Elevated glucocorticoid levels impair memory retrieval. We investigated whether retrieval under naturally elevated glucocorticoid levels, i.e., during the morning rise in cortisol can be improved by suppressing cortisol. In a crossover study 16 men retrieved emotional and neutral texts and pictures (learned 3 d earlier) 30 min after morning awakening, following administration of the cortisol synthesis inhibitor metyrapone or placebo. Unexpectedly, the metyrapone-induced cortisol suppression significantly impaired free recall of both materials. Recognition remained unaffected. Thus, not only high, but also very low glucocorticoid levels impair retrieval, with the latter effect possibly reflecting insufficient occupation of hippocampal/amygdalar mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs).
Footnotes
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↵4 Corresponding author.
Email ur228{at}nyu.edu; fax (212) 995-4349.
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[Supplemental material is available online at http://www.learnmem.org.]
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- Received December 17, 2009.
- Accepted January 27, 2010.
- © 2010 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
