Working memory for emotional facial expressions: role of estrogen in humans and non-human primates.

In recent years, numerous studies focusing on the role of sex steroid hormones on neuropsychological functions have been reported. The influence of estrogens on cognition can be explained by the widespread presence of estrogen receptors (ERs) in limbic and cortical areas, and the modulator role of estrogens on numerous neurotransmitter systems. There is a great deal of evidence suggesting that estrogen can enhance memory processes and improve performance in working memory (WM) tasks, including face-tasks, delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) and delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMTS). The modulator effects exerted by estrogens are complex and may vary according to task, gender, and phase of the menstrual cycle. For many years, physiological hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, postpartum, and menopause have been said to influence mood, cognition, and affective disorders. In addition, it has been hypothesised that estrogens have a protective role in schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Taking into account that women's performance in memory tasks can also fluctuate with circulating hormone levels across the menstrual cycle, data related to the cognitive performance in a WM task for emotional facial expressions were reported. The findings described in this review can contribute to clarifying the role of the steroid hormone estrogen in the modulation of cognitive functions, particularly memory, and indicate the possible usefulness of applying a new paradigm, employing a DNMTS task with emotional facial expressions, in studies focused on emotional WM in relevant models of nonhuman primates. Such data could also represent a useful tool in individualizing effective therapy for the treatment of disturbances linked to menstrual cycle phases and menopause in women.

Working memory for emotional facial expressions: role of the estrogen in young women.

Physiological hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, postpartum, and menopause have been implicated in the modulation of mood, cognition, and affective disorders. Taking into account that women's performance in memory tasks can also fluctuate with circulating hormones levels across the menstrual cycle, the cognitive performance in a working memory task for emotional facial expressions, using the six basic emotions as stimuli in the delayed matching-to-sample, was evaluated in young women in different phases of the menstrual cycle. Our findings suggest that high levels of estradiol in the follicular phase could have a negative effect on delayed matching-to-sample working memory task, using stimuli with emotional valence. Moreover, in the follicular phase, compared to the menstrual phase, the percent of errors was significantly higher for the emotional facial expressions of sadness and disgust. The evaluation of the response times (time employed to answer) for each facial expression with emotional valence showed a significant difference between follicular and luteal in reference to the emotional facial expression of sadness. Our results show that high levels of estradiol in the follicular phase could impair the performance of working memory. However, this effect is specific to selective facial expressions suggesting that, across the phases of the menstrual cycle, in which conception risk is high, women could give less importance to the recognition of the emotional facial expressions of sadness and disgust. This study is in agreement with research conducted on non-human primates, showing that fluctuations of ovarian hormones across the menstrual cycle influence a variety of social and cognitive behaviors. Moreover, our data could also represent a useful tool for investigating emotional disturbances linked to menstrual cycle phases and menopause in women.

Declarative memory retention and emotional stimuli. A study of an Italian sample.

Psychological and pharmacological studies in humans suggest that emotional arousal enhances long-term memory. In this paper we used, in an Italian sample, an adaptation of a paradigm previously utilized in American samples to study the relationship between emotion and long-term memory. Seventy-two healthy adults from different educational backgrounds were randomly assigned either to a neutral group or to an emotional arousal group and then told a short story, presented audio-visually. In both groups, the slides shown and the slide sequence were the same, and the images were accompanied by a narrative. The two versions of the story differed primarily in their emotional content. Shortly after viewing the slide presentation, the participants were asked to rate the emotionality of the narrative, and ten days later were submitted to a retention test. The emotionally-arousing version of the story was rated as more emotional than the neutral one. Compared with the members of the neutral group, the subjects in the arousal group recalled a significantly higher number of elements from the story. There was no overall difference between the two groups in performance on the recognition memory test. These results confirm that the emotional content of stimuli enhances long-term declarative memory of those stimuli, and indicate the possible usefulness of applying the paradigm utilized in this study to different clinical samples from various cultural backgrounds.