Wirtz

Fakultäten » Philosophische Fakultät » Psychologisches Institut » Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie » Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ehlert » Wirtz

Completed research project

Title / Titel	Influence of melatonin on stress-induced changes in memory performance
PDF	Abstract (PDF, 14 KB)
Summary / Zusammenfassung	Psychosocial stress induces activation of both, the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. There is evidence that stress-induced release of stress hormones induces changes in memory performance. In detail, memory consolidation during stress seems to be improved, whereas the retrieval of previoulsy learned contents seems to be impaired following stress. The project sets out to investigate the influence of a single administration of melatonin (3mg) on stress-induced changes in memory performance. Moreover, we investigated whether such changes are associated with a differential release of stress hormones following stress. Healthy men are administered either melatonin or placebo. Both groups are confronted with a standardized psychosocial stress test. We assessed stress-induced memory consolidation as well as memory retrieval by free recall and recognition tasks. In addition, we measured the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine before as well as repeatedly after stress.
Keywords / Suchbegriffe	Melatonin, memory, consolidation, retrieval, cortisol, catecholamines, stress
Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte	Dr. Petra Wirtz (Project Leader) p.wirtz@psychologie.uzh.ch Maria Spillmann   Carmen Bärtschi   Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ehlert u.ehlert@psychologie.uzh.ch
Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch	Forschungskredit der Universität Zürich
In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit	Prof. Dr. O.T. Wolf (University of Bielefeld) Greece
Duration of Project / Projektdauer	Jan 2005 to Dec 2007