Genomic and non-gemonic cortisol effects on memory retrieval dependent on sex hormone status

压力和伴随而来的压力荷尔蒙皮质醇的增加会导致记忆的恢复受损，这在日常生活中会产生明显的影响，比如在考试或法庭上。在过去的几年里，人们强调快速的非基因组皮质醇作用（在暴露于压力后几分钟内开始）补充了缓慢的基因组皮质醇作用（在一小时后开始），并导致两种情况下的记忆恢复受损。令人惊讶的是，只有很少的人类研究涉及记忆提取的神经基础，但仅限于非基因组的皮质醇效应。此外，以前的研究只包括男性，因此，没有证据表明女性的大脑结构相关。由于性激素浓度不同，妇女不仅要注意月经周期内的时间，还要注意口服避孕药（OC）的摄入量。特别是，研究表明，压力和皮质醇对各种学习和记忆过程的影响要么在OC女性中检测不到，要么与男性相反。因此，为了对比性激素对直接OC效应和一般性别效应的影响，对不同的女性群体进行调查是非常重要的。在目前的功能磁共振断层扫描研究中，非基因组和基因组皮质醇对记忆恢复的影响的神经特征应该被表征。除男性外，还应比较不同性激素水平的不同女性群体：在个体月经周期的早期卵泡期或黄体期进行测试的自由周期女性，以及服用OCs的女性。有意编码后24小时记忆恢复应在摄入安慰剂或皮质醇（20mg）后进行。此外，本研究旨在确定可能的因素（如海马体积或性激素浓度）与记忆恢复损伤量及其调节的个体差异有关。这项研究的结果有助于更好地理解应激激素引起的记忆缺陷的神经生物学基础。此外，对于临床应用领域的重要线索，特别是关于精神障碍，如创伤后应激障碍，其应激相关的记忆现象被很好地描述。

Stress and the accompanying increase in the stress hormone cortisol lead to impairments in memory retrieval, which exert distinct effects in daily life, for example in exams or in court. In the last years, it was emphasized that fast, non-genomic cortisol actions (starting within minutes after exposure to stress) complement slow genomic cortisol actions (beginning one hour later) and lead to impaired memory retrieval in both cases. Surprisingly, there are only few studies in humans investigating the involved neural underpinnings of memory retrieval, but restricted to non-genomic cortisol effects. In addition, previous studies only included men, thus, there is no existing evidence on the involved brain structures in women. Due to different sex hormone concentrations, attention has to be paid in women not only to the time within the menstrual cycle, but also to the intake of oral contraceptives (OC). In particular, it has been shown that stress and cortisol effects on various learning and memory processes are either not detectable in OC women or in the opposite direction as compared to men. Accordingly, it is extremely important to investigate different women groups in order to contrast sex hormone effects with direct OC effects and a general sex effect. In the present functional magnet resonance tomography study, the neural signature of non-genomic and genomic cortisol effects on memory retrieval should be characterized. In addition to men, different women groups with varying sex hormone levels should be compared: free-cycling women either tested in the early follicular phase or the luteal phase of the individual menstrual cycle as well as women taking OCs. Twenty-four hours after intentional encoding memory retrieval should take place either after intake of placebo or cortisol (20mg). Furthermore, it is intended to identify possible factors (e.g. hippocampal volume or sex hormone concentrations) associated with individual differences in the amount of memory retrieval impairment and its modulation.The results of this study can contribute a lot to a better understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of stress hormone induced memory deficits. In addition, important clues regarding clinical application fields are expected, particularly concerning mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder, whose stress-associated memory phenomena are well described.