Emotion-Induced Amnesia in Rats: Working Memory-Specific Impairment, Corticosterone-Memory Correlation, and Fear Versus Arousal Effects on Memory
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We have shown previously that psychological stress (predator exposure) impairs spatial memory in rats. We have extended that finding here to show that predator stress selectively impaired recently acquired (hippocampal-dependent) spatial working memory without affecting long-term (hippocampal-independent) spatial reference memory. We also investigated why predator exposure impairs memory. Was spatial memory impaired because of the fear-provoking aspects of predator exposure or only because the cat was a novel and arousing stimulus? If the latter possibility was correct, then any novel and arousing stimulus, independent of its emotional valence (i.e., aversive or appetitive), would impair memory. We found that spatial working memory was not impaired when the male rats were exposed to a sexually receptive female rat, a stimulus that was novel and arousing to them, but not aversive. We also found that there was an equivalent increase in serum corticosterone levels in male rats exposed to either a cat or a female rat, but only the cat-exposed rats exhibited a significant correlation between corticosterone levels and impaired memory. Overall, this series of experiments demonstrates that (1) predator stress selectively impaired working (hippocampal-dependent), but not reference (hippocampal-independent), memory; (2) a fear-provoking stimulus, and not merely novelty and increased arousal, impaired spatial memory; and (3) increased corticosterone levels correlated withimpaired spatial working memory only under predator exposure, that is, fear-provoking conditions.
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Stress, involving exposure of rats to either an unfamiliar environment or to a predator, impaired hippocampus-dependent memory.
“For example, we have found that stress, involving exposure of rats to either an unfamiliar environment or to a predator, impaired hippocampus-dependent memory (Diamond et al. [134]; Diamond et al. [52]; Woodson et al. [135]; Sandi et al. [136]; Diamond et al. [137]; Park et al. [138])”
From The Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing: A Synthesis on the Neurobiological Basis of Stress-Induced Amnesia, Flashbulb and Traumatic Memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson Law (2007) · cites this paper as Woodson et al. [135]
This observation of a predator stress-induced enhancement of memory is in complete contradistinction to our prior findings that exposing rats to a cat impaired their consolidation, as well as retrieval, of spatial memory.
“This observation of a predator stress-induced enhancement of memory is in complete contradistinction to our prior findings that exposing rats to a cat impaired their consolidation, as well as retrieval, of spatial memory (Diamond et al. [52]; Woodson et al. [135]; Sandi et al. [136]; Diamond et al. [137]; Park et al. [138]).”
From The Temporal Dynamics Model of Emotional Memory Processing: A Synthesis on the Neurobiological Basis of Stress-Induced Amnesia, Flashbulb and Traumatic Memories, and the Yerkes-Dodson Law (2007) · cites this paper as Woodson et al. [135]
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- Authors
- Woodson, J. C., Macintosh, D., Fleshner, M., & Diamond, D. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- University of South Florida (US)
- Corresponding author
- Diamond, David M.
- Venue
- Learning & Memory
- Publisher
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
- Published
- 2003-09
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 326-336
- ISSN
- 1072-0502 (ISSN-L)
- 1549-5485
- PMC
- PMC217998
- OpenAlex
- W2011771758
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 13
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Learning & Memory (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- predator stress, spatial working memory, spatial reference memory, hippocampal-dependent memory, corticosterone, fear, sexual arousal, stress-induced memory impairment
- MeSH terms
- Amnesia, Animals, Arousal, Corticosterone, Emotions, Fear, Hippocampus, Male, Memory, Memory, Short-Term, Stress, Psychological, Linear Models, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, Rats
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