SHORT COMMUNICATION Selective enhancement of spatial learning under chronic psychosocial stress
The hippocampus has long been proved to be implicated in several learning and memory processes. Being integrated into the limbic‐hypothalamus‐pituitary‐adrenal axis, the hippocampus also plays an active role in the regulation of the stress response. Long lasting elevated levels of glucocorticoids re...
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Published in | The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 15; no. 11; pp. 1863 - 1866 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford, UK
Blackwell Science Ltd
01.06.2002
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The hippocampus has long been proved to be implicated in several learning and memory processes. Being integrated into the limbic‐hypothalamus‐pituitary‐adrenal axis, the hippocampus also plays an active role in the regulation of the stress response. Long lasting elevated levels of glucocorticoids resulting from a prolonged stress exposure affect hippocampal functions and structure, inducing learning and memory alterations and suppressing cell proliferation in the adult dentate gyrus. Here, adult male tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri) exposed to chronic psychosocial stress were tested repeatedly on a holeboard apparatus using two different learning tasks devised to evaluate hippocampal‐dependent and hippocampal‐independent cognitive function. We show that chronic stress enhanced learning in animals performing the hippocampal‐dependent task, whereas no stress‐induced effect was found in the hippocampal‐independent task. Additionally, after five weeks of stress, cell proliferation was reduced in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. These results indicate that specific memory processes not only may remain intact, but indeed are facilitated by chronic stress, despite elevated cortisol levels and suppressed hippocampal cell proliferation. |
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Bibliography: | ArticleID:EJN2043 istex:09D8E612CA592E6AC2B93F7052D3B0E6E35E0A81 ark:/67375/WNG-4JZFSM5Q-D Bayer AG, Pharma Research CNS, Wuppertal, Germany A.B. and G. de B. contributed equally to this study. Present address ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0953-816X 1460-9568 |
DOI: | 10.1046/j.1460-9568.2002.02043.x |