Keywords
glucose
sex-related diffrences
males
females
IAPS
recall
recognition
How to Cite
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of glucose administration and emotional arousal on memory. Participants were undergraduate college students randomly assigned to glucose (50 g glucose) and placebo groups (50.6 mg saccharine) and further divided into high and low emotional arousal groups. High and low emotional arousal groups were shown a slide show whose content was either emotionally arousing or emotionally neutral, respectively. Blood glucose measurements were taken, and memory recall and recognition tests were given at various intervals throughout the experiment. Glucose improved memory for immediate recall in females only, while emotional arousal resulted in enhanced immediate and delayed recall for all subjects. Furthermore, emotional arousal enhanced recognition memory for males only. While the present findings confirm the facilitatory effects of glucose and emotional arousal on memory, they simultaneously stimulate more questions on the differences in the effect of these two factors on memory in males versus females.
References
Awad, N., Gagnon, M., Desrochers, A., Tsiakas, M. and Messier, C. (2002). Impact of peripheral glucoregulation on memory. Behavioral Neuroscience, 116(4), 691–702.
Azari, N. (1991). Effect of glucose on memory processes in young adults. Psychopharmacology 105(4), 521–524.
Beavers, K.M., Leng, I., Rapp, S.R., Miller, M.E., Houston, D.K., Marsh, A.P. and Kritchevsky, S.B. (2017). Effects of Longitudinal Glucose Exposure on Cognitive and Physical Function. Results from the Action for Health in Diabetes Movement and Memory Study. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 65(1), 137–145.
Benton, D. and Owens, D.S. (1993). Blood glucose and human memory. Psychopharmacology, 113, 83–88.
Blake, T.M., Varnhagen, C.K. and Parent, M.B. (2001). Emotionally arousing pictures increase blood glucose levels and enhance recall. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 75(3), 262–273.
Bradley, M.M., Greenwald, M.K. and Petry, M.C. (1992). Remembering pictures. Pleasure and arousal in memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 18, 379–390.
Brandt, K.R., Sünram-Lea, S.I. and Qualtrough, K. (2006). The effect of glucose administration on the emotional enhancement effect in recognition memory. Biological Psychology, 73, 199–208.
Cahill, C.M., Dray, A. and Coderre, T.J. (1998). Priming enhances endotoxin-induced thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia in rats. Brain Research, 808, 13–22.
Cahill, L., Prins, B., Weber, M. and McGaugh, J.L. (1994). Beta-adrenergic activation and memory for emotional events. Nature, 37, 702–704.
Craft, S., Murphy, C.G. and Wemstrom, J. (1994). Glucose effects on complex memory and nonmemory tasks. The influence of age, sex, and glucoregulatory response. Psychobiology, 22(2), 95–105.
Flint, R.W. and Riccio, D. (1999). Post-training glucose administration attenuates forgetting of passive-avoidance conditioning in 18-year-old rats. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 72, 62–67.
Ford, C.E., Scholey, A.B., Ayre, G. and Wesnes, K. (2002). The effect of glucose administration and the emotional content of words on heart rate and memory. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 16(3), 241–244.
Foster, J.K., Lidder, P.G. and Sunram, S.I. (1998). Glucose and memory. Fractionation of enhancement effects? Psychopharmacology, 37, 259–270.
Gore, J.B., Krebs, D.L. and Parent, M.B. (2006). Changes in blood glucose and salivary cortisol are not necessary for arousal to enhance memory in young or older adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 31(5), 589–600.
Gore, J.B. (2002). The effects of emotional arousal on recall, blood glucose, and salivary cortisol levels in young and older adults. ProQuest Information and Learning, US. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 63(6), 3059.
Hall, J.L et al. (1989). Glucose enhancement of performance on memory tests in young and aged humans. Neuropsychologia, 27(9), 1129–1138.
Kennedy, D.O. and Scholey, A.B. (2000). Glucose administration, heart rate and cognitive performance. Effects of increasing mental effort. Psychopharmacology, 149(1), 63–71.
Knight, M. and Mather, M. (2009). Reconciling findings of emotion-induced memory enhancement and impairment of preceding items. Emotion, 9, 763–781.
Knott, V.J., Messier, C., Mahoney, C. and Gagnon, M. (2001). Glucose and glucoregulatory modulation of memory scanning, event-related potentials and EEG in elderly subjects. Neuropsychobiology, 44(3), 156–166.
Lang, P.J. (1980). Behavioral treatment and bio-behavioral assessment. Computer applications. In: J.B. Sidowski, J.H. Johnson and T.A. Williams (eds.), Technology in mental health care delivery systems (pp. 119–137). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Lang, P.J., Bradley, M.M. and Cuthbert, B.N. (1997). International affective picture system (IAPS): Technical Manual and Affective Ratings. Gainsville, FL. The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.
Macpherson, H., Roberstson, B., Sünram-Lea, S., Stough, C., Kennedy, D. and Scholey, A. (2015). Glucose administration and cognitive function: differential effects of age and effort during a dual task paradigm in younger and older adults. Psychopharmacology, 232(6), 1135–1142.
Manning, C.A., Hall, J.L. and Gold, P.E. (1990). Glucose effects on memory and other neuropsychological tests in elderly humans. Psychological Science, 1(5), 307–311.
Martin, P.Y. and Benton, D. (1999). The influence of a glucose drink on a demanding working memory task. Physiology and Behavior, 67(1), 69–74.
Mather, M. and Nesmith, K. (2008). Arousal-enhanced location memory for pictures. Journal of Memory and Language, 58, 449–464.
Meikle, A., Riby, L.M. and Stollery, B. (2004). The impact of glucose ingestion and gluco-regulatory control on cognitive performance: A comparison of younger and middle aged adults. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 19(8), 523–535.
Messier, C. (2004). Glucose improvement of memory: A review. European Journal of Pharmacology, 490, 33–57.
Messier, C., Gagnon, M. and Knott, V. (1997). Effect of glucose and peripheral glucose regulation on memory in the elderly. Neurobiology of Aging, 18(3), 297–304.
Messier, C., Desrochers, A. and Gagnon, M. (1999). Effect of glucose, glucose regulation, and word imagery value on human memory. Behavioral Neuroscience, 113(3), 431–438.
Messier, C. and Gagnon, M. (1996). Glucose regulation and cognitive functions: Relation to Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Behavioural Brain Research, 75(1–2), 1–11.
Messier, C., Pierre, J., Desrochers, A. and Gravel, M. (1998). Dose-dependent action of glucose on memory processes in women: Effect on serial position and recall priority. Cognitive Brain Research, 7(2), 221–233.
Messier, C., Tsiakas, M., Gagnon, M., Desrochers, A. and Awad, N. (2003). Effect of age and glucoregulation on cognitive performance. Neurobiology of Aging, 24(7), 985–1003.
Metzger, M.M. (2000). Glucose enhancement of a facial recognition task in young adults. Physiology and Behavior, 68(4), 549–553.
Mohanty, A. and Flint, R.W. (2001). Differential effects of glucose on modulation of emotional and nonemotional spatial memory tasks. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 1(1), 90–95.
Morris, N. (2008). Elevating blood glucose level increases the retention of information from a public safety video. Biological Psychology, 78(2), 188–190.
Owens, D.S. and Benton, D. (1994). The impact of raising blood glucose on reaction time. Neuropsychobiology, 30(2–3), 106–113.
Parent, M.B., Varnhagen, C. and Gold, P.E. (1999). A memory-enhancing emotionally arousing narrative increases blood glucose levels in human subjects. Psychobiology, 27(3), 386–396.
Scholey, A.B. and Fowles, K.A. (2002). Retrograde enhancement of kinesthetic memory by alcohol and by glucose. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 78(2), 477–483.
Scholey, A.B., Harper, S. and Kennedy, D.O. (2001). Cognitive demand and blood glucose. Physiology and Behavior, 73(4), 585–592.
Scholey, A.B., Laing, S. and Kennedy, D.O. (2006). Blood glucose changes and memory: Effects of manipulating emotionality and mental effort. Biological Psychology, 71(1), 12–19.
Scholey, A.B., Sünram-Lea, S.I., Greer, J., Elliott, J. and Kennedy, D. (2009). Glucose administration prior to a divided attention task improves tracking performance but not word recognition: Evidence against differential memory enhancement? Psychopharmacology, 20, 549–558.
Sieber, F.E. and Traystman, R.J. (1992). Special issues: Glucose and the brain. Critical Care Medicine, 20(1), 104–114.
Stollery, B. and Christian, L. (2015). Glucose, relational memory, and the hippocampus. Psychopharmacology, 232(12), 2113–2125.
Sünram-Lea, S., Dewhurst, S.A. and Foster, J.K. (2008). The effect of glucose administration on the recollection and familiarity components of recognition memory. Biological Psychology, 77(1), 69–75.
Sünram-Lea, S., Foster, J.K., Durlach, P. and Perez, C. (2001). Glucose facilitation of cognitive performance in healthy young adults: Examination of the influence of fast-duration, time of day and pre-consumption plasma glucose levels. Psychopharmacology, 157(1), 46–54.
Sünram-Lea, S., Foster, J.K., Durlach, P. and Perez, C. (2002a). The effect of retrograde and anterograde glucose administration on memory performance in healthy young adults. Behavioural Brain Research, 134(1–2), 505–516.
Sünram-Lea, S., Foster, J.K., Durlach, P. and Perez, C. (2002b). Investigation into the significance of task difficulty and divided allocation of resources on the glucose memory facilitation effect. Psychopharmacology, 160(4), 387–397.
In accordance with the recommendation of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, which aims to counteract the practice of “ghostwriting” and “guest authorship,” all authors submitting their text for publication should attach an author’s statement which declares the contribution of each of the authors to the article. The printed and signed statement should be delivered by mail or other means to editor-in-chief Joanna Skibska or sent in the form of a scan to the following e-mail address: redakcja@kontekstypedagogczne.pl. The authors will not receive remuneration for publishing their papers. The editors reserve the right to make minor editorial changes to the articles which will not affect the substance of the article. We encourage all authors to prepare their articles in accordance with the guidelines for manuscript preparation. Download pdf file.
Authors transfer all copyrights and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree to the publishing of their email addresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.