ASSESSMENT OF COGNITIVE FUNCTION AND RELATIONSHIP TO STRESS REACTIVITY

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 相当多的研究集中在压力和认知表现之间的关系上。在人类中，应激源或使用糖皮质激素产生的高水平皮质醇会对陈述性记忆、面孔识别记忆和工作记忆产生有害影响。然而，关于压力反应性降低对认知表现的影响的研究很少。这样的研究要么需要通过实验降低糖皮质激素水平，要么需要研究应激反应较低的人群。我们之前已经证明，与对照组相比，患有SIB的猴子的应激反应性更低。因此，我们在两组雄性恒河猴(10只SIB，8只对照)中测试了这一假设，即较低的应激反应可能会提高认知表现。这些猴子被暴露在一个盒子转移任务中，包括看得见的、看不见的和没有转移的试验。一名实验者将一种食物藏在三个盒子中的一个盒子里。然后，她将那个盒子移到另一个盒子旁边，并将食物转移到猴子看不见(看得见)或看不见的地方；在一些试验中，她没有转移。然后，实验者打开了空盒子，让猴子去寻找食物。总体上，SIB猴子的表现好于对照组(p<0.05)，作为一个整体，在困难的隐形转移中，SIB猴子的表现明显好于Chance(p<0.05)。在SIB组中，在这种转移上表现优于Chance的猴子的皮质醇水平显著低于那些没有这样做的猴子(t=-2.45，p<0.05)。总体而言，成功的表现与血浆皮质醇水平呈负相关。我们的数据表明，较低的下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺皮质反应性有助于认知表现。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Considerable research has focused on the relationship between stress and cognitive performance. In humans, high levels of cortisol produced by stressors or by administration of glucocorticoids have deleterious effects on declarative memory, face recognition memory, and working memory. However, there is little research on the impact of reduced stress reactivity on cognitive performance. Such research requires either reducing glucocorticoid levels experimentally or studying populations with lower stress reactivity. We have previously shown that monkeys with SIB have lower stress reactivity than controls. We therefore tested the hypothesis that lower stress reactivity might enhance cognitive performance in two groups of male rhesus monkeys (10 SIB, 8 Control). The monkeys were exposed to a box transfer task involving visible, invisible, and no transfer trials. An experimenter concealed a treat in one of three boxes. She then moved that box next to another one and transferred the treat either in sight of (visible) or out of view of the monkey (invisible); on some trials she made no transfer. The experimenter then revealed the empty box and allowed the monkey to search for the treat. SIB monkeys performed better than controls overall (p less than .05) and as a group performed significantly better than chance on the difficult invisible transfer (p less than .05). Within the SIB group, monkeys performing better than chance on this transfer had significantly lower cortisol levels than those that did not (t=-2.45, p less than .05). Overall, successful performance was negatively correlated with plasma cortisol levels. Our data suggest that lower hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical reactivity facilitates cognitive performance.