Cortisolreaktion und Gedächtnisleistung nach unterschiedlichen Stressoren (Lernstress und Public Speaking) bei gesunden Probanden

In our study we evaluated a "Lern Stress Paradigm" developed by our research group with a balanced repeated measures design in 24 healthy young men. We hypothesized that it would- as the well-established stressor "Public Speaking Paradigm"- provoke a significant stress reaction including a cortisol elevation in comparison to a control condition (learning without stress). In addition, we assessed the effect of stress and cortisol elevation on implicit and explicit memory processes. Our Lern Stress Paradigm only lead to a significant adrenergic stress reaction (blood pressure), but not to a significant cortisol reaction in contrast to the Public Speaking Paradigm. In the overall group comparison, implicit memory was impaired under Public Speaking (lexical decision task), in contrast to explicit memory, which was not affected (word list learning). In subgroup analyses, however, cortisol-responders under Public Speaking where impaired in a component of explicit memory, the so-called proactive interference. Also, this subgroup showed improved implicit memory. A re-evaluation of our Lern Stress Paradigm should be conducted under intensified stress conditions (e.g. more time pressure, more difficult task). An interaction of andrenergic stress reaction and cortisol reaction is needed to influence memory performance. In the future, not only effects from cortisol on explicit, but also implicit memory should further be investigated.