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Stress modulates the engagement of multiple memory systems in classification learning
1Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany. Lars.Schwabe@rub.de
Summary
Stress impacts learning by shifting brain activity from the hippocampus to the striatum. This change favors procedural learning, maintaining performance despite reduced declarative memory function.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Learning and memory involve distinct brain systems.
- Stress is known to affect cognitive functions, but its precise impact on human memory systems remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how stress modulates declarative (hippocampus-based) and procedural (striatum-based) memory systems during classification learning in humans.
- To identify the brain mechanisms underlying stress-induced alterations in memory system engagement.
Main Methods:
- Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to monitor brain activity.
- Participants underwent a classification learning task under stressed and control conditions.
- Behavioral performance and neural activity were correlated with learning strategies.
Main Results:
- Stress reduced declarative knowledge and shifted learning strategy from declarative to procedural.
- Learning performance remained unaffected by stress.
- Hippocampal activity correlated with performance in controls but decreased and negatively correlated with performance after stress.
- Striatal activity correlated with performance under stress.
Conclusions:
- Stress significantly alters the engagement of multiple memory systems in the human brain.
- Stress impairs hippocampus-dependent declarative memory while promoting striatum-dependent procedural learning.
- The shift to procedural learning under stress appears to compensate for impaired declarative memory, preserving task performance.
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