Skip to main content

Cortisol Levels and Memory

Meaning

Cortisol Levels and Memory refers to the direct and dose-dependent influence of the primary stress hormone, cortisol, on the neural processes responsible for the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. Acute, transient elevations of cortisol, typical of a healthy stress response, can enhance memory consolidation, particularly for emotionally salient events. Conversely, chronic or pathologically excessive cortisol exposure is clinically associated with structural changes in the hippocampus and subsequent impairment of declarative memory.