HORMONE REPLACEMENT AND AGING EFFECTS ON MEMORY

记忆力减退是正常衰老的主要症状之一。最近的证据 表明伴随更年期的荷尔蒙变化可能部分解释了 老年女性记忆力减退的原因，这些记忆效应可能是 通过使用激素替代疗法（HRT）来缓和（Sherwin，1994）。 这些认知益处的机制仍不清楚。整体 本研究的目的是更好地描述HRT对 绝经后妇女的记忆力。以前的HRT研究有限 他们对记忆力的评估， 完全取决于回忆能力。建议的研究将扩大我们的 目前的理解HRT介导的记忆效应，通过检查多个 在受控实验范式中的人类记忆类型。在 除了检查HRT对记忆的影响外， 还将调查正常的年龄相关记忆障碍。 具体地说，健康的绝经后妇女从一个有代表性的 接受长期HRT的社区样本和年龄匹配的对照 从未使用过HRT的女性将与绝经前的年轻女性进行比较， 内隐记忆（启动）和外显记忆（回忆和 识别）的口头和非口头材料。除了证明更好的 HRT的行为效应的描述，我们感兴趣的是 研究雌激素调节记忆的潜在神经机制 功能具体来说，我们感兴趣的是解离记忆介导的 额叶和内侧颞叶为此，与事件相关的大脑 将记录64个头皮部位的ERP。 实验任务，试图阐明电生理 HRT相关的记忆增强指数。总的来说，这项工作将有助于 作为一个男人，以更好地阐明类型的记忆变化相关的 HRT并提供脑行为关联的初步检查 与使用HRT的绝经后妇女的记忆效应有关。

Memory loss is one of the main complaints of normal aging. Recent evidence suggests that hormonal changes accompanying menopause may partly account for memory-loss in aging women and that these memory effects can be tempered by the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) (Sherwin, 1994). The mechanism of these cognitive benefits remains unclear. The overall objective of this research is to delineate better the effects of HRT on memory in post-menopausal women. Previous studies of HRT have limited their assessment of memory to clinical measures focusing almost exclusively on recall ability. The proposed studies will extend our current understanding of HRT-mediated memory effects by examining multiple types of human memory within controlled experimental paradigms. In addition to examining the effects of HRT on memory, the proposed studies will also investigate normal age-associated memory impairment. Specifically, healthy postmenopausal women drawn from a representative community sample who have undergone long-term HRT and age-matched controls who have never used HRT will be compared to younger premenopausal women on tests of implicit memory (priming) and explicit memory (recalling and recognition) for verbal and non-verbal material. Beyond proving a better description of the behavioral effects of HRT, we are interested in examining potential neural mechanisms by which estrogens modulate memory function. Specifically, we are interested in dissociating memory mediated by the frontal and medial temporal lobes. To that end, event-related brain potentials (ERPs) will be recorded from 64 scalp sites during the experimental tasks in an attempt to elucidate the electrophysiological indices of HRT-related memory enhancement. Overall, this work will serve as a mens to better elucidate the type of memory changes associated with HRT and to provide an initial examination of brain-behavior associations related to the memory effects reported in HRT-using postmenopausal women.