Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 58, Issue 11, 1 December 2005, Pages 885-893
Biological Psychiatry

Original article
Effects of Cortisol Suppression on Sleep-Associated Consolidation of Neutral and Emotional Memory

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.05.008Get rights and content

Background

Previous research indicates that hippocampus-dependent declarative memory benefits from early nocturnal sleep, when slow-wave sleep (SWS) prevails and cortisol release is minimal, whereas amygdala-dependent emotional memory is enhanced through late sleep, when rapid eye movement (REM) sleep predominates. The role of the strong cortisol rise accompanying late sleep for emotional memory consolidation has not yet been investigated.

Methods

Effects of the cortisol synthesis inhibitor metyrapone on sleep-associated consolidation of memory for neutral and emotional texts were investigated in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 14 healthy men. Learning took place immediately before treatment, which was followed by 8 hours of sleep. Retrieval was tested at 11 am the next morning.

Results

Metyrapone suppressed cortisol during sleep and blocked particularly the late-night rise in cortisol. It reduced SWS and concomitantly impaired the consolidation of neutral texts. Emotional texts were spared from this impairing influence, however. Metyrapone even amplified emotional enhancement in text recall indicating amygdala-dependent memory.

Conclusions

Cortisol blockade during sleep impairs hippocampus-dependent declarative memory formation but enhances amygdala-dependent emotional memory formation. The natural cortisol rise during late sleep may thus protect from overshooting emotional memory formation, a mechanism possibly pertinent to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Section snippets

Subjects

Sixteen healthy male students (mean age 24.8 years; mean body mass index 24.4 kg/m2) with regular sleep–wake rhythms were recruited at the University of Lübeck to participate in the experiments. They were nonsmokers, did not take any medication, and had no history of psychiatric or neurological disorders, sleep or memory disturbances, endocrine dysfunction, or drug abuse. Subjects were acclimated to the experimental sleep condition by spending an adaptation night in the sleep laboratory. On

Hormones and Sleep

Cortisol concentrations were comparable between conditions at learning but were strongly suppressed overnight after administration of metyrapone (Figure 1). The suppression was already effective during early sleep (p < .01) and reached its maximal extent during late sleep, when the normal nocturnal rise in cortisol, as observable in the placebo condition, was actually prevented [1.3 ± .2 vs. 12.5 ± .7 μg/dL, t(13) = −16.85, p < .0001]. In the morning hours after awakening, cortisol gradually

Discussion

This study investigated in healthy humans effects of overnight suppression of cortisol by metyrapone on sleep-related consolidation of emotional and neutral declarative memory, using text materials. The primary finding is that metyrapone reduced consolidation of the neutral texts but left consolidation of emotional texts intact. To dissect the amygdala-dependent emotional contribution from hippocampal function in memorizing the emotional texts, we determined in a supplementary analysis the

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