Stress and cognition: are corticosteroids good or bad guys?

doi:10.1016/S0166-2236(99)01438-1

Trends in Neurosciences

Volume 22, Issue 10, October 1999, Pages 422-426

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-2236(99)01438-1 Get rights and content

Corticosteroid hormones secreted by the adrenal cortex protect the brain against adverse events and are essential for cognitive performance. However, in recent literature, the central action of corticosteroids has mostly been portrayed as damaging and disruptive to memory formation. We argue that this paradox can be explained by appreciating the specific role of both mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors in the various stages of information processing. In addition, the context in which corticosteroid-receptor activation takes place is crucial in determining steroid-mediated effects. These effects generally favour adaptive behaviour that is most relevant to the situation. Corticosteroid effects on cognition can, however, turn from adaptive into maladaptive, when actions via the two corticosteroid-receptor types are imbalanced for a prolonged period of time.

Section snippets

Role of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors

Recent studies have shown that MRs have a role in behavioural reactivity during novel situations, whereas GRs are involved in consolidation of learned information (see Fig. 1). This is based partly on studies that have used the Morris water maze. Intracerebroventricular administration of selective GR antagonists before or immediately after the first training session in a water maze results in impaired retention of the task 24 h later¹⁰^,¹⁵. As treatment before the retrieval test is ineffective,

Importance of context

The consequence of MR or GR activation, or both, strongly depends on the context of the learning task. In accordance, environmental inputs that activate specific neuronal pathways are likely to influence steroidreceptor-mediated changes in limbic activity (see Box 1). For example, in the inhibitory avoidance response of day-old chicks, corticosterone enhances memory for a weak aversant, while the same dose of the steroid impairs memory that results from a strong aversant²⁴. Correspondingly,

LTP and LTD

Recent electrophysiological studies have indicated an attractive neurobiological substrate for the stress-induced beneficial or disruptive effects on memory formation. These studies focus on the role of corticosteroids in LTP and LTD, two phenomena that refer to the strengthening and weakening, respectively, of synaptic contacts by repeated stimulation²⁷^,²⁸. The rapid induction, specificity, associativity and long-lasting nature of LTP have led to the suggestion that it contributes to the

Concluding remarks

The objective of this article has been to highlight that the co-localized hippocampal corticosteroid receptor types mediate, in a coordinated manner, the action of corticosteroids on distinctly different aspects of cognitive function. In order to aid understanding of the role of these receptors it is important to emphasize that the hormones themselves do not cause behavioural changes, but influence the information-processing systems conditionally, so that specific internal and external stimuli

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Trends in Neurosciences

Stress and cognition: are corticosteroids good or bad guys?

Section snippets

Role of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors

Importance of context

LTP and LTD

Concluding remarks

Stress

Brain Res Rev

Eur J Neurosci

Neurosci Biobehav Rev

Eur J Neurosci

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Hippocampus

J Neurophysiol

Front Neuroendocrinol

Hippocampus

Behav Neural Biol

Science

J Neurophysiol

Neuroscience

Trends Neurosci

J Neurosci

Life Sci

J Neurosci

Endocr Rev

Endocr Rev

Curr Opin Neurobiol

Nature

Trends Neurosci

Front Neuroendocrinol

Mol Endocrinol

J Cell Sci

Behav Neurosci

Psychobiology

Behav Neurosci