Effects of acute cortisol administration on perceptual priming of trauma-related material
Open accessAbstract
Intrusive memories are a hallmark symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They reflect excessive and uncontrolled retrieval of the traumatic memory. Acute elevations of cortisol are known to impair the retrieval of already stored memory information. Thus, continuous cortisol administration might help in reducing intrusive memories in PTSD. Strong perceptual priming for neutral stimuli associated with a "traumatic" context has been shown to be one important learning mechanism that leads to intrusive memories. However, the memory modulating effects of cortisol have only been shown for explicit declarative memory processes. Thus, in our double blind, placebo controlled study we aimed to investigate whether cortisol influences perceptual priming of neutral stimuli that appeared in a "traumatic" context. Two groups of healthy volunteers (N = 160) watched either neutral or "traumatic" picture stories on a computer screen. Neutral objects were presented in between the pictures. Memory for these neutral objects was tested after 24 hours with a perceptual priming task and an explicit memory task. Prior to memory testing half of the participants in each group received 25 mg of cortisol, the other half received placebo. In the placebo group participants in the "traumatic" stories condition showed more perceptual priming for the neutral objects than participants in the neutral stories condition, indicating a strong perceptual priming effect for neutral stimuli presented in a "traumatic" context. In the cortisol group this effect was not present: Participants in the neutral stories and participants in the "traumatic" stories condition in the cortisol group showed comparable priming effects for the neutral objects. Our findings show that cortisol inhibits perceptual priming for neutral stimuli that appeared in a "traumatic" context. These findings indicate that cortisol influences PTSD-relevant memory processes and thus further support the idea that administration of cortisol might be an effective treatment strategy in reducing intrusive reexperiencing.
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Experiential phenomena such as intrusive memories can be measured in more than one way, for example by provoking them in the laboratory, and can be complemented with physiological outcomes and performance-based tasks.
“Nevertheless, experiential phenomena such as intrusive memories can be measured in more than one way, for example by ‘provoking’ them in the laboratory so that they are at least reported under more controlled conditions (Lau-Zhu et al., 2018).”
From Intrusive memories of trauma: A target for research bridging cognitive science and its clinical application (2019) · cites this paper as Holz et al., 2014
The Discussion (page unavailable) says trauma-film paradigms can reliably induce intrusive memories in the laboratory, but explicitly says this study did not investigate intrusive memories themselves. The Methods describe saliva sampling and performance-based memory tests, supporting the broader claim about complementary measures. The printed citing sentence cites Lau-Zhu et al. (2018), not this paper. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Holz, E., Lass-Hennemann, J., Streb, M., Pfaltz, M., & Michael, T.
- Affiliations
- Saarland University (DE)
- University Hospital Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Michael, Tanja
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-09-05
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e104864
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4156294
- OpenAlex
- W2024631589
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 2.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- cortisol, perceptual priming, post-traumatic stress disorder, intrusive memories, memory modulation, declarative memory, neutral stimuli, re-experiencing
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Memory, Perception, Photic Stimulation, Mental Recall, Saliva, Stress, Psychological, Recognition, Psychology, Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Young Adult, Healthy Volunteers
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