Stressed Memories: How Acute Stress Affects Memory Formation in Humans

Abstract

Stressed memories: How acute stress affects memory formation in humansHenckens, M.J.A.G.; Hermans, E.J.; Pu, Z.; Joëls, M.; Fernández, G. General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Stressful, aversive events are extremely well remembered. Such a declarative memory enhancement is evidently beneficial for survival, but the same mechanism may become maladaptive and culminate in mental diseases such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Stress hormones are known to enhance postlearning consolidation of aversive memories but are also thought to have immediate effects on attentional, sensory, and mnemonic processes at memory formation. Despite their significance for our understanding of the etiology of stress-related mental disorders, effects of acute stress at memory formation, and their brain correlates at the system scale, remain elusive. Using an integrated experimental approach, we probed the neural correlates of memory formation while participants underwent a controlled stress induction procedure in a crossover design. Physiological (cortisol level, heart rate, and pupil dilation) and subjective measures confirmed acute stress. Remarkably, reduced hippocampal activation during encoding predicted stress-enhanced memory performance, both within and between participants. Stress, moreover, amplified early visual and inferior temporal responses, suggesting that hypervigilant processing goes along with enhanced inferior temporal information reduction to relay a higher proportion of taskrelevant information to the hippocampus. Thus, acute stress affects neural correlates of memory formation in an unexpected manner, the understanding of which may elucidate mechanisms underlying psychological trauma etiology.

A virtual reality paradigm as an analogue to real-life trauma: its effectiveness compared with the trauma film paradigm

“…Schaich, Watkins, & Ehring, 2013;Verwoerd, De Jong, & Wessel, 2008). Furthermore, a variety of physiological measures (cortisol level, heart rate, and pupil dilation) confirmed successful stress induction for these particular four scenes (Henckens et al, 2009), and a longer version of the rape scene elicited a higher heart rate, more distress, and more intrusive memories than three other trauma films (Weidmann, Conradi, Gröger, Fehm, & Fydrich, 2009). Participants were instructed to immerse completely into the depicted film scenes, after which the experimenter turned off the light and left the room (cf.…”

“…Henckens, Hermans, Pu, Joëls, & Fernández, 2009). Clips from this movie induced intrusive memories in several studies (e.g.…”

Amygdala–Hippocampal Connectivity Changes During Acute Psychosocial Stress: Joint Effect of Early Life Stress and Oxytocin

“…The stress regulation circuit and the neural circuit for learning and memory largely overlap in the amygdala and hippocampus and enhanced connectivity between these two regions has an important role in both encoding and consolidation of emotional memory (RichterLevin and Akirav, 2000). Acute stress alters hippocampal activity during encoding and affects memory performance (Henckens et al, 2009). The ELS-associated enhancement in stress-induced amygdala-hippocampal FC changes may therefore indicate an impact of ELS on memory during stress.…”

Acute stress modulates genotype effects on amygdala processing in humans

“…The present stress induction method closely corresponds to the determinants of the human stress response as described by Mason (42) (i.e., unpredictability, novelty, and uncontrollability). Moreover, previous studies have shown that this method elicits a measurable physiological and psychological stress response (26)(27)(28).…”

“…Acute stress was induced by showing short movie clips with highly aversive content and a self-reference instruction, which directly preceded and followed the task. This method of stress induction has been shown previously to elicit an acute stress response (26)(27)(28). To assess the effectiveness of this method in our study, subjective negative affect, salivary cortisol and α-amylase, and heart rate were measured.…”