Working memory for emotional facial expressions: role of the estrogen in young women.

Physiological hormonal fluctuations during the menstrual cycle, postpartum, and menopause have been implicated in the modulation of mood, cognition, and affective disorders. Taking into account that women's performance in memory tasks can also fluctuate with circulating hormones levels across the menstrual cycle, the cognitive performance in a working memory task for emotional facial expressions, using the six basic emotions as stimuli in the delayed matching-to-sample, was evaluated in young women in different phases of the menstrual cycle. Our findings suggest that high levels of estradiol in the follicular phase could have a negative effect on delayed matching-to-sample working memory task, using stimuli with emotional valence.

Effect of 5-HT(7) antagonist SB-269970 in the modulation of working and reference memory in the rat.

It has been established that serotonergic pathways project to cerebral areas involved in learning and memory and that serotonin (5-HT) receptor agonists and antagonists modify these processes. Indeed, most of the 5-HT receptors characterized so far, i.e.

5-HT(7) receptors in the modulation of cognitive processes.

The abundance of serotonin (5-HT) in the central nervous system can explain its role in the regulation of various functions, such as sleep, feeding, sexuality, emotional status, and pain. In addition, 5-HT localized in "cognitive pathways" with hippocampus and frontal cortex as the main target structures, is involved in learning and memory processes. Recent studies led to the discovery of various types and subtypes of receptors, differentially associated to cognitive mechanisms.

Emotional memory and migraine: effects of amitriptyline and sex related difference.

Many studies suggest that emotional arousal improves memory storage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of emotional content on explicit memory in untreated cephalalgic patients and in migraineurs treated with the antidepressant amitriptyline. We utilized an adaptation of two versions of the same story, with different arousing properties (neutral or emotional), which have been already employed in experiments involving the enhancing effects of emotions on memory retention.