Manipulating cortisol close to the time of forming new memories can decrease the negative emotions that may be associated with them, the researchers said.
Thirty-three men participated in the study, which involved learning a story composed of neutral and negative events. Three days later, they were divided into three groups – participants in the first group received a single dose of metyrapone and a second group received a double dose. The third group received a placebo. Group participants were then asked to remember the story. Then, in fours days after the medication had cleared from the body, individual memory performance was reevaluated.
“We found that the men in the group who received two doses of metyrapone were impaired when retrieving the negative events of the story, while they showed no impairment recalling the neutral parts of the story,” Marin said. “We were surprised that the decreased memory of negative information was still present once cortisol levels had returned to normal.”
