Corticosteroid-Binding Globulin Deficiency Specifically Impairs Contextual and Recognition Memory Consolidation in Male Mice

2019 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 322-332
Author(s):  
Gabriela F. de Medeiros ◽  
Pauline Lafenêtre ◽  
Yoottana Janthakhin ◽  
Juan-Carlos Cerpa ◽  
Chun-Lei Zhang ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: Glucocorticoids are essential in modulating memory processes of emotionally arousing experiences and we have shown that corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) influences glucocorticoid delivery to the brain. Here, we investigated the role of CBG in contextual and recognition long-term memory according to stress intensity. Method: We used adult male mice totally deficient in CBG (Cbg KO) or brain-specific Cbg KO (CbgCamk KO) to examine their performance in contextual fear conditioning (CFC) and au­ditory fear conditioning, both at short (1 h) and long-term (24 h). Long-term memory in Cbg KO was further analyzed in conditioned odor aversion and in novel object recognition task (NORT) with different paradigms, that is, with and without prior habituation to the context, with a mild or strong stressor applied during consolidation. In the NORT experiments, total and free glucocorticoid levels were measured during consolidation. Results: Impaired memory was observed in the Cbg KO but not in the CbgCamk KO in the CFC and the NORT without habituation when tested 24 h later. However, Cbg KO displayed normal behavior in the NORT with previous habituation and in the NORT with a mild stressor. In condition of the NORT with a strong stressor, Cbg KO retained good 24 h memory performance while controls were impaired. Total and free glucocorticoids levels were always higher in controls than in Cbg KO except in NORT with mild stressor where free glucocorticoids were equivalent to controls. Conclusions: These data indicate that circulating but not brain CBG influences contextual and recognition long-term memory in relation with glucocorticoid levels.

2004 ◽  
Vol 101 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Veselis ◽  
Ruth A. Reinsel ◽  
Vladimir A. Feshchenko ◽  
Ray Johnson

Background Sedative-hypnotic drugs impair memory, but details regarding the nature of this effect are unknown. The influences of propofol, thiopental, and dexmedetomidine on the performance of a task that isolates specific components of episodic memory function were measured. Methods Working (1 intervening item, 6 s) and long-term memory (10 intervening items, 33 s) were tested using auditory words in a continuous recognition task before and during drug administration. Eighty-three volunteer participants were randomly assigned to receive a constant target concentration of drug or placebo, producing sedative effects from imperceptible to unresponsiveness. Responsive participants were categorized as high or low performers, using a median split of long-term memory performance during drug administration. Recognition of words at the end of the study day was assessed. Results High performers had acquisition of material into long-term memory when drug was present at the same level as placebo. Retention of this material at 225 min was significantly less for propofol (39 +/- 23% loss of material) than for other drugs (17-23% loss; P < 0.01). Greater sedation in low performers was evident in multiple measures. Memory for words presented before drug was no different from that associated with placebo for all groups. Conclusions Lack of retention of material acquired into long-term memory during propofol administration, associated with minimal sedation, seems to define drug-induced amnesia. Sedation seems to impair the acquisition or encoding of material into long-term memory. Therefore, the putative targets of drug-induced amnesia by propofol are processes associated with retention of material in long-term memory.


Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J Shaw ◽  
Zhisen Urgolites ◽  
Padraic Monaghan

Visual long-term memory has a large and detailed storage capacity for individual scenes, objects, and actions. However, memory for combinations of actions and scenes is poorer, suggesting difficulty in binding this information together. Sleep can enhance declarative memory of information, but whether sleep can also boost memory for binding information and whether the effect is general across different types of information is not yet known. Experiments 1 to 3 tested effects of sleep on binding actions and scenes, and Experiments 4 and 5 tested binding of objects and scenes. Participants viewed composites and were tested 12-hours later after a delay consisting of sleep (9pm-9am) or wake (9am-9pm), on an alternative forced choice recognition task. For action-scene composites, memory was relatively poor with no significant effect of sleep. For object-scene composites sleep did improve memory. Sleep can promote binding in memory, depending on the type of information to be combined.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayden Schill ◽  
Jeremy Wolfe ◽  
Timothy F. Brady

Memory capacity depends on prior knowledge, both in working memory and in long-term memory. For example, radiologists have improved long-term memory for medical images compared to novices. Furthermore, people tend to remember abnormal or surprising items best. This is often claimed to arise primarily because such items attract additional attention at encoding. How do expertise and abnormality interact when experts are actively searching for abnormalities; e.g. radiologists looking at mammograms? In the current work, we investigate whether expert radiologists (N=32) show improved memory performance for abnormal images compared to novice participants (N=60). We consider two types of “abnormality.” A mammogram can have a focal abnormality that can be localized or it could simply be the mammogram of a woman known to have cancer (e.g. the image of the breast contralateral to the focal abnormality). Must an image have a focal abnormality for additional attentional processing to be engaged? We found that experts have better memory for mammograms than novice participants and enhanced memory for abnormal images relative to normal images. Overall, radiologists showed no memory benefit for the contralateral-abnormal images and did not discriminate them from normal images, but had enhanced memory for images with focal abnormalities. Our results suggest that focal abnormalities play an important role in enhancing memory of expert observers.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lea M. Bartsch ◽  
Vanessa M. Loaiza ◽  
Lutz Jäncke ◽  
Klaus Oberauer ◽  
Jarrod A. Lewis-Peacock

AbstractMaintenance of information in working memory (WM) is assumed to rely on refreshing and elaboration, but clear mechanistic descriptions of these cognitive processes are lacking, and it is unclear whether they are simply two labels for the same process. This fMRI study investigated the extent to which refreshing, elaboration, and repeating of items in WM are distinct neural processes with dissociable behavioral outcomes in WM and long-term memory (LTM). Multivariate pattern analyses of fMRI data revealed differentiable neural signatures for these processes, which we also replicated in an independent sample of older adults. In some cases, the degree of neural separation within an individual predicted their memory performance. Elaboration improved LTM, but not WM, and this benefit increased as its neural signature became more distinct from repetition. Refreshing had no impact on LTM, but did improve WM, although the neural discrimination of this process was not predictive of the degree of improvement. These results demonstrate that refreshing and elaboration are separate processes that differently contribute to memory performance.HighlightsRepeated reading, refreshing, and elaboration are differentiable in brain activation patterns in both young and older adults.Elaboration selectively improved long-term memory for young adults, and the size of the benefit was related to the neural separability of elaboration from other processes.Older adults implemented a sub-optimal form of elaboration, and this may be a factor contributing to age-related deficits in long-term memory.Ethics statementThe study was approved by the ethical review board of the canton of Zurich (BASEC-No. 2017-00190) and all subjects gave informed written consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.Data and code availability statementAll behavioral data and analysis scripts can be assessed on the Open Science Framework (osf.io/p2h8b/). The fMRI data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, LMB. The fMRI data are not publicly available due to restrictions of the Swiss Ethics Committees on research involving humans regarding data containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Norwardatun Mohamed Razali

Colours are mentioned many times in the Holy Qur’an. Some are mentioned as colours in general, and some of them in specific; yellow, white, black, red, green and blue. Each colour has its special connotations in the Holy Qur’an and among these colours, yellow and red are considered as warm colours. This study aimed to find the significance of warm colours in the Holy Qur’an and its relationship to human psychology; focusing on memory performance. This research had used an inductive approach in terms of selecting Quranic verses; in which yellow and red colour were mentioned. These verses were then analysed by referring to the books of exegetical considerations in order to know the implications of these colours’ usage, as well as referring to psychology books and scientific articles. The research found that yellow and red colour in the Holy Qur’an mostly indicate attracting attention or pleasing viewers. Some examples included the yellow colour in resemblance to the colour of the cow, attention to decay and destruction such as yellow colour in the withering plants, and attention to resurrection like the red colour resembling scene of the Day of Resurrection. This indication in the Holy Qur’an is consistent with psychologists’ discovery; warm colours such as red and yellow are more effective and attractive in the process of transferring information from external to sensory memory, and thus to short-term and long-term memory.


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