HORMONE REPLACEMENT AND AGING EFFECTS ON MEMORY

记忆力丧失是正常衰老的主要症状之一。最近的证据 提示伴随着更年期的荷尔蒙变化可能是部分原因 对于老年女性的记忆丧失，这些记忆效应可能是 通过使用激素替代疗法(HRT)进行锻炼(Sherwin，1994)。 这些认知益处的机制仍不清楚。整体而言 本研究的目的是为了更好地描述HRT对 绝经后妇女的记忆力。以前对激素替代疗法的研究有限 他们对记忆的评估几乎集中在临床测量上 完全依赖于回忆能力。拟议的研究将延长我们的 HRT介导的记忆效应的研究现状 受控实验范例中的人类记忆类型。在……里面 除了研究HRT对记忆的影响外，这项拟议的研究 还将调查正常的与年龄相关的记忆障碍。 具体地说，健康的绝经后妇女从代表 接受长期HRT和年龄匹配对照的社区样本 从未使用过HRT的女性将与使用HRT的年轻绝经前女性进行比较 内隐记忆测验(启动)和外显记忆测验(回忆和 对语言和非语言材料的识别)。超越证明更好的 关于HRT的行为影响的描述，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。具体地说，我们感兴趣的是通过分离记忆 通过额叶和内侧的颞叶。为此，与事件相关的大脑 将记录头皮部位的电位(ERP) 试图阐明电生理的实验任务 HRT相关记忆增强指标。总体而言，这项工作将有助于 作为一名男性更好地阐明与记忆变化相关的类型 HRT，并提供大脑行为关联的初步检查 与使用激素替代疗法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.