Cortisol, Memory and Age: The Effects of Chronic Stress
What is Cortisol?
How can stress/cortisol be both
good and bad for memory?
Cortisol is a natural, steroid hormone produced by the adrenal gland
that helps your body regulate stress. At normal levels and short
fluctuations, it is important in helping you remember stressful
situations. However, extended high levels of stress are associated
with similarly persistent and high levels of cortisol which can prove
negative for the body and memory as well. (Joels, 2006)
Cortisol can be found all over the body, from your blood to your
saliva and is key to the “fight or flight response”. Its effects
including increasing blood sugar, suppressing the immune system,
reducing bone formation, are useful in emergencies, but harmful if
not controlled. (Wolf, 2001)
Molecular Structure of Cortisol
Chronic Cortisol Effects and Age:
Does cortisol affect my memory?
Molecular Structure of Cortisol
http://www.icgeb.org/~p450srv/ligand/cortis
ol.html
Yes. There is literature that suggests that abnormal cortisol levels and
patterns can reduce the learning ability of people of all ages and this has
been replicated in animal studies as well. Jong (2000) showed piglets raised
in barren environments growing up to have static levels of cortisol, similar
to those seen in depressed humans. Newcomer (2009) gave oral doses of
cortisol to 18-30 year olds and found that those given higher doses showed
reversible decreases in verbal declarative memory. Bodnoff (1995) found
that older rats given chronic stress levels of the rodent cortisol equivalent
showed worsened spatial memory and that this could be reproduced with
social stress as well. Lupien (2008) showed trending effects of cortisol in
the elderly. Those with increasing or high cortisol levels had reduced
volume of the hippocampus (the memory center of the brain) and deficits in
memory tasks.
Varying Hippocampus Morphologies in Human Brains
Associated with Individuals with Either
Decreasing / Moderate or Increasing / High
Cortisol Levels
(Lupien 1998)
Things to Remember
Cortisol is a natural steroid that helps your body adapt to stress and is
correlated to stress.
Persistent, high levels of cortisol and stress have fast-acting, negative
effects on the body.
These effects can alter your learning ability and health at any age.
Regardless of whether stress is physical, mental, or social, the effects are
the same if of similar magnitude and duration.
Showing how pattern of cortisol levels is just as important as concentration:
Piglets in this study raised in comfortable, stimulating environments may have
had higher cortisol but had superior spatial memory and were less aggressive.
(Jong 2000)
The effects of stress and cortisol on memory appear to be optimized to
short, stressful events: dangerous moments like car crashes or your parents
scolding you so that you remember how to behave next time. Joels (2006)
describes a unifying theory to understand how this works by saying: “stress
will only facilitate learning and memory processes: (i) when stress is
experienced in the context and around the time of the event that needs to be
remembered, and (ii) when the hormones and transmitters released in
response to stress exert their actions on the same circuits as those activated
by the situation, that is, when convergence in time and space takes place.”
What this means is that if stress is prolonged, the down-regulation by the
HPA axis on the hippocampus and other regions of the brain doesn’t stop
and memory capability suffers.
These effects are reversible.
If you have further questions,
please consult your doctor for further advice.
Diagram of stress inducing memory storage increase on a short time scale
(green) and reducing it on a long time scale (red) to focus memory on the
stressful event (Joels, 2006)
Sources Cited:
Bodnoff, Shari. "Enduring Effects of Chronic Corticosterone Treatment on
Spatial Learning, Synaptic Plasticity, and Hippocampal Neuropathology in
Young and Mid-Aged Rats."The Journal of Neuroscience15.1 (1995). Print.
De Jong, Ingrid. "Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Behavioral
Responses to Novelty, Learning, and Memory and the Circadian Rhythm in
Cortisol in Growing Pigs."Physiology & Behavior(2000). Print.
Joels, Marian. "Learning under Stress: How Does It Work?"Trends in
Cognitive Sciences.4 (2006). Print.
Lupien, Sonia. "Cortisol Levels during Human Aging Predict Hippocampal
Atrophy and Memory Deficits."Nature Neuroscience.1 (1998). Web.
Ruis, Marko. "The Circadian Rhythm of Salivary Cortisol in Growing Pigs:
Effects of Age, Gender, and Stress."Physiology & Behavior.3 (1997). Print.
Wolf, Oliver. "The Relationship between Stress Induced Cortisol Levels and
Memory Differs between Men and
Women."Psychoneuroendocrinology(2001). Print.
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