Cortisol and memory
Wolf et al (2001) tested how the relationship between stress-induced cortisol levels affected healthy adult men and women. While they found that higher cortisol levels correlated with lower memory performance in men, there was no such relationship for women. In an elderly population, Seeman et al's 1997 study which showed a greater relationship between memory performance and cortisol levels for women than men. Newcomer et al (1999) experimented with cortisol levels in healthy adults, and also found reversible decreases in memory function that were dose-dependent, but did not report significant gender differences.
Zorawski et al (2006 found that stress-induced cortisol levels increased stimulus-related learning in men, but not in women. They postulate that estrogen may affect cortisol receptors. This theory is supported by animal studies, such as Wood and Shors (1998) where female rats did not show differential response after ovariectomy. This may explain some of the differences between post-menopausal results for women vs. the results for younger women.
So, if suppressing estrogen (as I've done in my body since August 2003) increases the tendency of increased cortisol levels to enhance learning, I should be having an easier time cramming for exams, right? I can't actually report any specific changes in my learning style, because of the many changes in situation I've already listed, but I certainly don't feel like I have an easier time focusing under pressure than I used to have. In fact, on a recent test, I made the kind of pressure-related "stupid" mistakes that I hardly ever made in college (such as confusing gray and white matter in a spinal cord diagram). The confounds (age, time away from school, familiarity with subject matter) in my case render this observation worse than useless, but I find it interesting to think about.
Zorawski et al (2006 found that stress-induced cortisol levels increased stimulus-related learning in men, but not in women. They postulate that estrogen may affect cortisol receptors. This theory is supported by animal studies, such as Wood and Shors (1998) where female rats did not show differential response after ovariectomy. This may explain some of the differences between post-menopausal results for women vs. the results for younger women.
So, if suppressing estrogen (as I've done in my body since August 2003) increases the tendency of increased cortisol levels to enhance learning, I should be having an easier time cramming for exams, right? I can't actually report any specific changes in my learning style, because of the many changes in situation I've already listed, but I certainly don't feel like I have an easier time focusing under pressure than I used to have. In fact, on a recent test, I made the kind of pressure-related "stupid" mistakes that I hardly ever made in college (such as confusing gray and white matter in a spinal cord diagram). The confounds (age, time away from school, familiarity with subject matter) in my case render this observation worse than useless, but I find it interesting to think about.