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

压力和随之而来的压力激素皮质醇的增加会导致记忆恢复的障碍，这在日常生活中产生明显的影响，例如在考试或法庭上。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），并导致两种情况下记忆恢复受损。令人惊讶的是，只有很少的研究在人类中调查记忆提取的神经基础，但仅限于非基因组皮质醇的影响。此外，以前的研究只包括男性，因此，没有关于女性大脑结构的证据。由于不同的性激素浓度，女性不仅要注意月经周期的时间，还要注意口服避孕药（OC）的摄入量。特别是，已经表明，压力和皮质醇对各种学习和记忆过程的影响在OC女性中是不可检测的，或者与男性相反。因此，调查不同的妇女群体以将性激素效应与直接OC效应和一般性效应进行对比是极其重要的。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提取的影响的神经签名的特点。除了男性，不同的女性群体与不同的性激素水平应进行比较：自由周期的女性要么在早期卵泡期或黄体期的个人月经周期以及妇女服用口服避孕药。有意编码后24小时，记忆提取应在服用安慰剂或皮质醇（20 mg）后进行。此外，它的目的是确定可能的因素（如海马体积或性激素浓度）与个体差异的记忆提取障碍的量及其调制，本研究的结果可以有助于更好地理解应激激素诱导的记忆缺陷的神经生物学基础。此外，关于临床应用领域的重要线索是预期的，特别是关于精神障碍，如创伤后应激障碍，其压力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.