Embodiment of an Emotional State Concurs with a Stress-Induced Reconsolidation Impairment Effect on an Auditory Verbal Word-List Memory

JESSICA SÁNCHEZ BEISEL; F. MAZA; NADIA JUSTEL; P. N. FERNÁNDEZ LARROSA; A. DELORENZI

NEUROSCIENCE

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2022

0306-4522

Stress alters memory. Understanding how andwhen acute stress can improve or impair memory processes is a challenge.Stressors can affect memory depending on a combination of factors. Typically, mild stressors and stress hormonesmight enhance the consolidation of memory processing and impair the retrievalof memory. However, severalstudies describe that, during reconsolidation, stressors may either enhance orimpair the recalled memory. We proposed that a function of reconsolidation isto induce changes in the behavioral expression of memory. Here, we adapted theRey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), which has been widely used inneuropsychological clinics, to evaluate the effect of cold pressor stress (CPS)during the reconsolidation of this declarative memory. A decay in memoryperformance attributed to forgetting was found at the time of memoryreactivation five days after training (Day 6). Contrary to our initialpredictions, the administration of CPS after memory reactivation impairedlong-term memory expression (Day 7), an effect that depended on the presence ofa mismatch in the Reactivation Session. No differences in recognition testswere found. To assess putative sources of the negative memory modulationeffects induced during reconsolidation, the current emotional state wasevaluated immediately after the Testing session (Day 7). An increase in arousalwas revealed only when the CPS was administered concurrently with memoryreactivation-labilization. Thepossibility of the integration during reconsolidation of independentassociations of these emotive components in the trace is discussed as acritical factor in modulating neutral memories during reconsolidation bystressors.