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

In der vorliegenden Studie wurde ein von unserer Arbeitsgruppe entwickeltes Lernstress-Paradigma anhand eines ausbalancierten Messwiederholungs-Designs dahingehend evaluiert, ob es im Vergleich zu einer Lernbedingung unter Ruhe und dem etablierten Stressor „Public Speaking“ (Öffentliches Sprechen) e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Isaksson, Alexandra
Contributors: Hemmeter, Ulrich-Michael (Dr.) (Thesis advisor)
Format: Doctoral Thesis
Language:German
Published: Philipps-Universität Marburg 2012
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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.