scholarly journals Estradiol and oxytocin modulate sex differences in hippocampal reactivity and episodic memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Coenjaerts ◽  
Isabelle Trimborn ◽  
Berina Adrovic ◽  
Birgit Stoffel-Wagner ◽  
Larry Cahill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Combined Treatment ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Parallel Group

Considerable evidence supports sex differences in autobiographical and episodic memory which may translate to heightened vulnerability to stress- and trauma-related disorders in women. The hormones estradiol and oxytocin both affect episodic memory, but possible sex-specific effects and hormonal interactions have not been systemically tested in humans. We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study involving healthy women (n = 111) and men (n = 115). Participants were scanned under four experimental conditions: 1. estradiol gel (2 mg) and intranasal oxytocin (24 IU), 2. placebo gel and intranasal oxytocin, 3. estradiol gel and placebo spray, 4. placebo gel and placebo spray. During fMRI, participants viewed positive, neutral and negative scenes. A surprise recognition task three days later was used to classify encoding trials as remembered or forgotten. Under placebo, women showed a significantly better recognition memory and increased hippocampal responses to subsequently remembered items independent of the emotional valence compared to men. Separate treatments with either estradiol or oxytocin significantly diminished this mnemonic and hippocampal sex difference, whereas the combined treatment produced no significant effect. Collectively, our results suggest that estradiol and oxytocin play a crucial role in modulating sex differences in episodic memory. Furthermore, possible antagonistic interactions between estradiol and oxytocin could explain previously observed opposing hormonal effects in women and men.

Effects of Subliminal Affective Priming on Helping Behavior Using the Foot-in-the-Door Technique

2012 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inès Skandrani-Marzouki ◽  
Yousri Marzouki ◽  
Robert-Vincent Joule
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Helping Behavior ◽  
Affective Priming ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Initial Request ◽  
Priming Condition ◽  
Compliant Behavior

Two experiments examined the effect of subliminal affective priming on compliance using the foot-in-the-door (FITD) paradigm. Prior to the target request, participants were exposed to subliminal emotional expressions. FITD (presence vs absence of initial request) was crossed with Priming (positive, negative, neutral, and absence of prime-blank screen) in a between-subjects design. 180 students volunteered as participants ( M = 22 years). 20 participants (10 females) were assigned to each of eight experimental conditions plus the control condition that neither involved the initial request nor the priming experiment. Participants were asked to judge whether target sentences were relevant or not for road safety instruction. In Experiment 1, emotional valence of prime stimuli affected both endorsement rate and time devoted to the target request but not participants' attitude. Affective priming effects did not interact significantly with the FITD effect. In Experiment 2, in 180 more students, the attitude measure was replaced by an implicit recognition task. Results showed that regardless of priming condition, in the absence of FITD, participants recognized target sentences better than in the presence of FITD. Conversely, in the presence of the FITD, participants recognized more accurately previously seen sentences that were primed by positive emotions relative to other priming conditions. The latter result suggests that the presence of the FITD involves a significant amount of cognitive resources so that only stimuli emotionally relevant to the task's goal (i.e., positive) tend to be processed. Together, these results could explain how, contrary to helping behavior, compliant behavior that has no direct association with the prime stimuli was not easily influenced by the affective subliminal priming.

scholarly journals Effects of Emotion and Emotional Valence on the Neural Correlates of Episodic Memory Search and Elaboration

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 825-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaclyn Hennessey Ford ◽  
John A. Morris ◽  
Elizabeth A. Kensinger
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Phase Retrieval ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Memory Search ◽  
Emotional Valence ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Study Phase ◽  
Positive Events ◽  
Medial Pfc

Successful retrieval of an event includes an initial search phase in which the information is accessed and a subsequent elaboration phase in which an individual expands on event details. Traditionally, functional neuroimaging studies examining episodic memory retrieval either have not made a distinction between these two phases or have focused on the initial search process. The current study used an extended retrieval trial to compare the neural correlates of search and elaboration and to examine the effects of emotion on each phase. Before scanning, participants encoded positive, negative, and neutral images paired with neutral titles. After a 30-min delay, participants engaged in a scanned recognition task in which they viewed the neutral titles and indicated whether the title had been presented with an image during the study phase. Retrieval was divided into an initial memory search and a subsequent 5-sec elaboration phase. The current study identified neural differences between the search and elaboration phases, with search being associated with widespread bilateral activations across the entire cortex and elaboration primarily being associated with increased activity in the medial pFC. The emotionality of the retrieval target was more influential during search relative to elaboration. However, valence influenced when the effect of emotion was greatest, with search engaging many more regions for positive events than negative ones, but elaboration engaging the dorsomedial pFC more for negative events than positive events.

Investigation of sex differences in emotional episodic memory in schizophrenia patients: an fMRI study

NeuroImage ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. S158
Author(s):  
N Lakis ◽  
A Mancini-Marië ◽  
J Jiménez ◽  
M Rinaldi ◽  
A Mendrek
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Fmri Study

scholarly journals The Detrimental Impacts of Negative Age Stereotype on Episodic Memory of Older Adults: Does Social Participation Moderate the Effects?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Cheong Yu Chan ◽  
Alma May Lan Au ◽  
Simon Man Kin Lai
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Social Participation ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Participation Rate ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Age Stereotypes ◽  
Recall Interval

Abstract Background: Memory performances were shown to be negatively affected by negative age stereotype primes among older adults. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of negative age stereotype primes on episodic memory using implicit priming intervention and further investigate whether social participation moderate the effects. Methods: A total of 105 community-dwelling older adults residing in Hong Kong were randomly allocated to two experimental conditions. Participants were primed either with negative age stereotypes (n = 53) or neutral words (n = 52) by implicit priming intervention which was framed as reaction task prior to the episodic memory tasks. Other measures such as demographic variables and social participation rate were collected by questionnaire during the delayed recall interval. Results: Results indicated that experimental group performed significantly worse than the control group among all measures in the memory performances. Follow-up analyses showed that social participation moderated the effects of negative age stereotypes in the recognition task. Conclusions: Using a simple scale to measure social participation, we found there was a significant moderating effect of social participation on the effects of negative age stereotype primes on episodic memory, these results provide initial support for social participation might act as an effective strategy against negative age stereotypes. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04202120 (first posted December 17, 2019), (Retrospectively registered) Keywords: Age stereotypes, episodic memory, older adults, social participation

What did you do yesterday? A meta-analysis of sex differences in episodic memory.

2019 ◽  
Vol 145 (8) ◽  
pp. 785-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Asperholm ◽  
Nadja Högman ◽  
Jonas Rafi ◽  
Agneta Herlitz
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Meta Analysis

scholarly journals Do Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Cardiovascular Disease Explain Sex Differences in Cognitive Functioning in Old Age?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Maria van Zutphen ◽  
Judith Johanna Maria Rijnhart ◽  
Didericke Rhebergen ◽  
Majon Muller ◽  
Martijn Huisman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk ◽  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Cognitive Functioning ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk Factors ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Information Processing Speed

Background: Sex differences in cognitive functioning in old age are known to exist yet are still poorly understood. Objective: This study examines to what extent differences in cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease between men and women explain sex differences in cognitive functioning. Methods: Data from 2,724 older adults from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam were used. Information processing speed and episodic memory, measured three times during six years of follow-up, served as outcomes. The mediating role of cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular disease was examined in single and multiple mediator models. Determinant-mediator effects were estimated using linear or logistic regression, and determinant-outcome and mediator-outcome effects were estimated using linear mixed models. Indirect effects were estimated using the product-of-coefficients estimator. Results: Women scored 1.58 points higher on information processing speed and 1.53 points higher on episodic memory. Several cardiovascular risk factors had small mediating effects. The sex difference in information processing speed was mediated by smoking, depressive symptoms, obesity, and systolic blood pressure. The sex difference in episodic memory was mediated by smoking, physical activity, and depressive symptoms. Effects of smoking, LDL cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus on information processing speed differed between men and women. Conclusion: Differences in cardiovascular risk factors between women and men partially explained why women had better cognitive functioning. A healthy cardiovascular lifestyle seems beneficial for cognition and sex-specific strategies may be important to preserve cognitive functioning at older age.

scholarly journals Effects of ketamine on brain function during metacognition of episodic memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirko Lehmann ◽  
Claudia Neumann ◽  
Sven Wasserthal ◽  
Johannes Schultz ◽  
Achilles Delis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Parietal Lobe ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Lingual Gyrus ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Confidence Ratings

Abstract Only little research has been conducted on the pharmacological underpinnings of metacognition. Here, we tested the modulatory effects of a single intravenous dose (100 ng/ml) of the N-methyl-D-aspartate-glutamate-receptor antagonist ketamine, a compound known to induce altered states of consciousness, on metacognition and its neural correlates. Fifty-three young, healthy adults completed two study phases of an episodic memory task involving both encoding and retrieval in a double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI study. Trial-by-trial confidence ratings were collected during retrieval. Effects on the subjective state of consciousness were assessed using the 5D-ASC questionnaire. Confirming that the drug elicited a psychedelic state, there were effects of ketamine on all 5D-ASC scales. Acute ketamine administration during retrieval had deleterious effects on metacognitive sensitivity (meta-d′) and led to larger metacognitive bias, with retrieval performance (d′) and reaction times remaining unaffected. However, there was no ketamine effect on metacognitive efficiency (meta-d′/d′). Measures of the BOLD signal revealed that ketamine compared to placebo elicited higher activation of posterior cortical brain areas, including superior and inferior parietal lobe, calcarine gyrus, and lingual gyrus, albeit not specific to metacognitive confidence ratings. Ketamine administered during encoding did not significantly affect performance or brain activation. Overall, our findings suggest that ketamine impacts metacognition, leading to significantly larger metacognitive bias and deterioration of metacognitive sensitivity as well as unspecific activation increases in posterior hot zone areas of the neural correlates of consciousness.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document