Endogenous cortisol levels correlate negatively with delayed, but not immediate recall of emotional pictures
Wohlgemuth, S.1, Hellhammer, K.1, Holz, N.1, Rihm, J.1, Suhl, V.1, de Quervain, D.2, Papassotiropoulos, A.1, and Rasch, B.1,2
1Division of Molecular Psychology, University of Basel; 2Division of Psychiatry Research, University of Zürich
Cortisol is important for emotional memories. Experimentally increasing cortisol levels supports encoding and consolidation, but has an impairing effect on retrieval of emotional memories. However, the effects of endogenous cortisol levels on emotional memory recall are unknown.
On two consecutive days 120 healthy young women viewed one of two sets of pictures taken from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). On day 2, both sets were recalled simultaneously. This allowed us to measure recent (10min) and remote (20h) memory recall at the same time. Endogenous cortisol levels were measured via saliva samples.
We show that endogenous cortisol levels during retrieval testing are negatively correlated with remote, but not recent recall of emotional pictures. No significant correlation was found for neutral pictures. Our results support the notion that high cortisol levels during retrieval testing impair recall of remote emotional memories and extend this view onto individual differences in endogenous cortisol levels.