Benzodiazepines produce robust impairments of memory alongside global decreases in physiological and subjective arousal. Recently one benzodiazepine (triazolam) has been found to disproportionately impair memory for emotionally arousing material (Buchanan et al., 2003). The extent to which this effect may be mediated by the drug's sedative action is unclear. The present study aimed to assess how pharmacologically decreasing physiological arousal with a benzodiazepine and increasing arousal with a stimulant impact on memory for emotional material. A double-blind placebo controlled trial with 48 volunteers was used to investigate the effects of methylphenidate (40 mg) and Lorazepam (1.5 mg) on incidental memory for emotional material in Cahill and McGaugh's (1995) slide-story task. The slide-story was presented to participants administered either active drug or placebo and retrieval was assessed one week later. Methylphenidate produced stimulant effects and Lorazepam produced sedative effects. Significantly enhanced memory for emotional material was observed in participants given placebo, but not in those given either methylphenidate or Lorazepam. Despite producing opposite effects upon arousal, both methylphenidate and Lorazepam lessen the impact of emotionally arousing material on memory. The effects of Lorazepam add to a growing literature that benzodiazepines may exert their clinical, anxiolytic effects in part via altering emotionaL cognitive function.
Adolphs R. , Tranel D. , Buchanan T.W. (2005) Amygdala damage impairs emotional memory for gist but not details of complex stimuli . Nature Neuroscience8: 512—518
2.
Adolphs R. , Denburg N.L. , Tranel D. (2001) The amygdala's role in long-term declarative memory for gist and detail . Behavioural Neuroscience115: 983—992
3.
Blair R J R , Curran H.V. (1999) Selective impairment in the recognition of anger induced by diazepam . Psychopharmacology147: 335—338
4.
Brignell C.M. , Curran H.V. (2006) Drugs, sweat, and fears: a comparison of the effects of diazepam and methylphenidate on fear conditioning . Psychopharmacology186: 504—516
5.
Buchanan T.W. , Karafin M.S. , Adolphs R. (2003) Selective effects of triazolam on memory for emotional, relative to neutral, stimuli: differential effects on gist versus detail . Behavioral Neuroscience117: 517—525
6.
Cahill L. (2006) Why sex matters for neuroscience. Nature Reviews . Neuroscience7: 477—484
7.
Cahill L. , Alkire M.T. (2003) Epinephrine enhancement of human memory consolidation: Interaction with arousal at encoding. Neurobiology ofLearning and Memory79: 194—198
8.
Cahill L. , McGaugh J.L. (1998) Mechanisms of emotional arousal and lasting declarative memory . Trends in Neurosciences21: 294—299
9.
Cahill L. , McGaugh J L. (1995) A novel demonstration of enhanced memory associated with emotional arousal . Consciousness and Cognition4: 410—421
10.
Cahill L. , Prins B. , Weber M. , McGaugh J.L. (1994) β-Adrenergic activation and memory for emotional events . Nature371: 702—704
11.
Camp-Bruno J A , Herting R L. (1994) Cognitive effects of milacemide and methylphenidate in healthy young adults . Psychopharmacology115: 46—52
12.
Cahill L. , Brioni J. , Izquierdo I. (1986) Retrograde memory enhancement by diazepam: its relation to anterograde amnesia and some clinical implications . Psychopharmacology90: 554—556
13.
Christianson S.A. , Loftus E.F. (1991) Remembering emotional events: The fate of detailed information . Cognition and Emotion5: 81—108
14.
Clark C.R. , Geffen G.M. , Geffen L.B. (1986) Role of monoamine pathways in attention and effort: Effects of clonidine and methylphenidate in normal adult humans . Psychopharmacology90: 35—39
15.
Curran H.V. , Schiwy W. , Eves F. , Shine P. , Lader M. (1988) A `levels of processing' study of the effects of benzodiazepines on human memory. Human Psychopharmacology : Clinical and Experimental3: 21—25
16.
Curran H.V. , Collins R. , Fletcher S. , Kee S C Y , Woods B. , Iliffe S. (2003) Older adults and withdrawal from benzodiazepine hypnotics in general practice: effects on cognitive function, sleep, mood and quality of life . Psychological Medicine33: 1223—1237
17.
Curran H.V. (2000) Psychopharmacological perspective on memory. In Tulving E T , Craik F I M (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Memory. Oxford University Press, New York , pp. 539—554
18.
Curran H.V. , Birch B. (1991) Differentiating the sedative and amnestic effects of benzodiazepines: a study with midazolam and the benzodiazepines antagonist, flumazenil . Psychopharmacology103: 519—523
19.
Elliott R. , Sahakian B.J. , Matthews K. , Bannerjea A. , Rimmer J. , Robbins T.W. (1997) Effects of methylphenidate on spatial working memory and planning in healthy young adults . Psychopharmacology131: 196—206
20.
Frith C.D. (1967) The effects of nicotine on tapping . Life Science6: 321—326
21.
Ghoneim (2004) Drugs and human memory (part 1): Clinical, theoretical, and methodologic issues . Anesthesiology100(4): 987—1002
22.
Guy S.C. , Cahill L. (1999) The role of overt rehearsal in enhanced conscious memory for emotional events . Consciousness and Cognition8: 114—122
23.
Hamann S. (2001) Cognitive and neural mechanisms of emotional memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences5: 394—400
24.
Hamann S B. , Cahill L. , McGaugh J.L. , Squire L R (1997) Intact enhancement of declarative memory for emotional material in amnesia . Learning and Memory4: 301—309
25.
Hardman J.G. , E.Limbird L, Goodman Gilman A (2001 ) Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 10 edn. McGraw-Hill Professional
26.
Holmes E.A. , Brewin C.R. , Hennessy R.G. (2004) Trauma films, information processing, and intrusive memory development . Journal of Experimental Psychology. General 133: 3—22
27.
Hommer D. , Weingartner H.J. , Breier A. (1993) Dissociation of benzodiazepine-induced amnesia from sedation by flumazenil pretreatment . Psychopharmacology112: 455—460
28.
Howell, D.C. (1997). Statistical Methods for Psychology (4th ed.) Wadsworth, Belmont, CA
29.
Hurley M. , Parker H. , Wells D.L. (2006) The epidemiology of drug facilitated sexual assault. Journal of Clinical ForensicMedicine13: 181—185
30.
Kapur S. (2003) Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia . The American Journal of Psychiatry160: 13—23
31.
Klorman R. , Bauer L.O. , Coons H.W. , Lewis J.L. , Peloquin J. , Perlmutter R.A. , Ryan R.M. , Salzman L.F. , Strauss J. (1984) Enhancing effects of methylphenidate on normal young adults' cognitive processes . Psychopharmacology Bulletin20: 3—9
32.
Koelega H.S. (1993) Stimulant drugs and vigilance performance: A review . Psychopharmacology111: 1—16
33.
Lacey J.I. (1949) Consistency of patterns of somatic response to stress . American Psychologist4: 232—233
34.
Lang P.J. , Bradley M.M. , Cuthbert B.N. (1999) International Affective Picture System (IAPS)
35.
Maheu F.S. , Joober R. , Beaulieu S. , Lupien S.J. (2004) Differential effects of adrenergic and corticosteroid hormonal systems on human short-and long-term declarative memory for emotionally arousing material . Behavioral Neuroscience118: 420—428
36.
McGaugh J.L. (2000) Memory: A century of consolidation . Science287: 248—251
37.
McGaugh J L. , Introini-Collison I B. , Cahill L F. , Castellano C. , Dalmaz C. , Parent M B. , Williams CL (1993) Neuromodulatory systems and memory storage: Role of the amygdala . Behavioural Brain Research58: 81—90
38.
Mehta M.A. , Hinton E.C. , Montgomery A.J. , Bantick R.A. , Grasby P.M. (2005) Sulpiride and mnemonic function: effects of a dopamine D2 receptor antagonist on working memory, emotional memory and long-term memory in healthy volunteers. Journal ofPsychopharmacology19: 29—38
39.
Mehta M.A. (2002) Where do we go from here? The importance of initial values . Neuropsychopharmacology27: 879—880
40.
Mehta M.A. , Owen A.M. , Sahakian B.J. , Mavaddat N. , Pickard J.D. , Robbins T.W. (2000) Methylphenidate enhances working memory by modulating discrete frontal and parietal lobe regions in the human brain . The Journal of Neuroscience20: RC65
41.
Mintzer M.Z. , Griffiths R.R. (2003) Triazolam-amphetamine interaction: dissociation of effects on memory versus arousal. Journal ofPsychopharmacology17: 17—29
42.
Naylor H. , Halliday R. , Callaway E. (1985) The effect of methylphenidate on information processing . Psychopharmacology86: 90—95
43.
O'Carroll R E. , Drysdale E. , Cahill L. , Shajahan P. , Ebmeier K P. (1999a) Stimulation of the noradrenergic system enhances and blockade reduces memory for emotional material in man. Journal ofPsychopharmacology29: 1083—1088
44.
O'Carroll R E. , Drysdale E. , Cahill L. , Shajahan P. , Ebmeier K P. (1999b) Memory for emotional material: A comparison of central versus peripheral beta blockade . Psychological Medicine13: 32—39
45.
Oken B.S. , Kishiyama S.S. , Salinsky M.C. (1995) Pharmacologically induced changes in arousal: effects on behavioral and electrophysiologic measures of alertness and attention . Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology95: 359—371
46.
Papps B P. , Shajahan P M. , Ebmeier K P. , O' Carroll R E. (2002) The effects of noradrenergic re-uptake inhibition on memory encoding in man . Psychopharmacology159: 311—318
47.
Phelps E A. , LaBar K S. , Anderson A K. , O'Connor K J. , Fulbright R K. , Spencer D D. (1998) Specifying the contributions of the human amygdala to emotional memory: A case study . Neurocase4: 527—540
48.
Phelps E A. , LaBar K S. , Spencer D D. (1997) Memory for emotional words following unilateral temporal lobectomy . Brain and Cognition35: 85—109
49.
Robbins T.W. (1997) Arousal systems and attentional processes. BiologicalPsychology45: 57—71
50.
Rogers R.D. , Blackshaw A.J. , Middleton H.C. , Matthews K. , Hawtin K. , Crowley C. , Hopwood A. , Wallace C. , Deakin J-F W. , Sahakian B J. , Robbins T W. (1999) Tryptophan depletion impairs stimulus-reward learning while methylphenidate disrupts attentional control in healthy young adults: Implications for the monoaminergic basis of impulsive behaviour . Psychopharmacology146: 482—491
51.
Russell J.A. , Weiss A. , Mendelsohn G.A. (1989) Affect Grid: A single-item scale of pleasure and arousal . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology57: 493—502
52.
Schultz W. (2006) Behavioral theories and the neurophysiology of reward. Annual Review ofPsychology
53.
Scott-Ham M. , Burton F.C. (2005) Toxicological findings in cases of alleged drug-facilitated sexual assault in the United Kingdom over a 3-year period. Journal of Clinical ForensicMedicine12: 175—186
54.
Shibata S. , Yamashita K. , Yamamoto E. , Ozaki T. , Ueki S. ( 1989) Effects of benzodiazepine and GABA antagonists on anticonflict effects of antianxiety drugs injected into the rat amygdala in a water-lick suppression test . Psychopharmacologia98: 38—44
55.
Soetens E. , Casaer S. , D'Hooge R. , Hueting J.E. (1995) Effect of amphetamine on long-term retention of verbal material . Psychopharmacology119: 155—162
56.
Soetens E. , D'Hooge R. , Hueting J.E. (1993) Amphetamine enhances human-memory consolidation . Neuroscience Letters 161: 9—12
57.
Southwick S.M. , Davis M. , Horner B, Cahill L, Morgan C A, III, Gold P E, Bremner J D, Charney D C ( 2002) Relationship of enhanced norepinephrine activity during memory consolidation to enhanced long-term memory in humans . The American Journal of Psychiatry159: 1420—1422
58.
Tomaz C. , Dickinson Anson H. , McGaugh J L. , Souza Silva M A. (1993) Localization in the amygdala of the amnestic action of diazepam on emotional memory . Behavioural Brain Research58: 99—105
59.
van Stegeren A H. , Everaerd W. , Cahill L. , McGaugh J L. , Gooren L J-G. (1998) Memory for emotional events: Differential effects of centrally versus peripherally acting beta-blocking agents . Psychopharmacology138: 305—310
60.
van Stegeren A H. , Everaerd W. , Gooren L J. (2002) The effect of beta-adrenergic blockade after encoding on memory of an emotional event . Psychopharmacology163: 202—212
61.
van Stegeren A H. , Goekoop R. , Everaerd W. , Scheltens P. , Barkhof F. , Kuijer J P A. , Rombouts S A R B. (2005) Noradrenaline mediates amygdala activation in men and women during encoding of emotional material . NeuroImage24: 898—909
62.
Weingartner H.J. , Sirocco K. , Curran V. , Wolkowitz O. (1995) Memory facilitation following the administration of the benzodiazepine triazolam. Experimental and ClinicalPsychopharmacology3: 298—303
63.
Wetzel C.D. , Squire L.R. , Janowsky D.S. (1981) Methylphenidate impairs learning and memory in normal adults . Behavioral and Neural Biology31: 413—424
64.
Zangara A. , Blair R J R , Curran H.V. (2002) A comparison of the effects of a beta-adrenergic blocker and a benzodiazepine upon the recognition of human facial expressions . Psychopharmacologia163: 36—41
