Stressful and emotionally arousing experiences activate hormonal systems that create strong memories. It remains unclear, however, how this strengthening affects the quality of such memories. In the present study, we examined whether the noradrenergic and glucocorticoid hormonal systems affect accuracy of episodic-like memory. We trained male Sprague-Dawley rats on an episodic-like association task, termed inhibitory avoidance discrimination task, in which they explored two different contexts, but shock was given only in the latter context. Forty-eight hours later, retention latencies were tested in the two training contexts as well as in a novel context. The noradrenergic stimulant yohimbine, administered systemically immediately after the training session, enhanced both accuracy and strength of the memory, as shown by long latencies specific to the shock context. By contrast, the glucocorticoid corticosterone induced a generalized strengthening of memory and enhanced latencies in both the shock and non-shock training contexts. Retention latencies in the novel context were not significantly affected. These findings indicate that the noradrenergic and glucocorticoid systems, while both strengthening memory of the shock experience per se, produce opposite effects on accuracy of the shock-context association.

中文翻译：

---

去甲肾上腺素能和糖皮质激素激活对情景样记忆准确性的相反影响

压力和情绪激动的经历会激活荷尔蒙系统，从而产生强烈的记忆。然而，目前尚不清楚这种强化如何影响这种记忆的质量。在本研究中，我们检查了去甲肾上腺素能和糖皮质激素系统是否影响情景样记忆的准确性。我们训练雄性 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠进行类似情节的关联任务，称为抑制性回避歧视任务，在该任务中，他们探索了两种不同的环境，但仅在后一种环境中给予电击。四十八小时后，在两种训练环境以及新环境中测试了保留延迟。训练结束后立即全身给药去甲肾上腺素能兴奋剂育亨宾，可提高记忆的准确性和强度，如冲击环境特有的长延迟所示。相比之下，糖皮质激素皮质酮在休克和非休克训练环境中诱导了普遍的记忆力增强和潜伏期增加。新环境中的保留延迟没有受到显着影响。这些发现表明，去甲肾上腺素能和糖皮质激素系统虽然都加强了对休克经历本身的记忆，但对休克上下文关联的准确性产生了相反的影响。