The relationship between sleep, HPA axis hormones and cognitive processes

• Grant number: 11/10062-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Duration: November 01, 2011 - February 29, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Physiological Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Paula Ayako Tiba
• Grantee: Paula Ayako Tiba
• Host Institution: Centro de Matemática, Computação e Cognição (CMCC). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Deborah Suchecki ; João Ricardo Sato ; Maria Gabriela Menezes de Oliveira

Abstract

Several studies have shown an important role of sleep on cognitive processes, such as learning and memory. For instance, sleep deprivation impact negatively on several tasks, while learning itself alters subsequent sleep profile. Nevertheless, the hormones of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, released during stress, might play a role in these effects. The HPA hormones act in an inverted U-shaped curve fashion on both sleep and memory. Intermediate levels of these hormones may induce sleep rebound and improve performance in aversively-motivated memory tasks, whereas at very low or high levels, they may induce waking and impairment of performance. Given that sleep deprivation procedure results in a robust release of stress hormones, the impaired performance could be due to the lack of sleep and/or to the stress inherent to the deprivation method. At the same time, several memory tasks which consists, for instance, on the presentation of footshocks, may induce hormonal release in the range sufficient to induce sleep rebound and memory improvement. In this way, the aim of this study is to evaluate the participation of the HPA axis hormones on sleep-deprivation induced memory deficits, as well as in sleep profile alterations observed after learning. Pharmacological and behavioral approaches will be used in order to investigate the role of HPA axis hormones on both 1) sleep-deprivation induced memory deficit; 2) sleep profile alteration after learning. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

BUENO, ANA PAULA A.; QUEIROZ DE PAIVA, JOSELISA PERES; CORREA, MOISES DOS SANTOS; TIBA, PAULA AYAKO; FORNARI, RAQUEL VECCHIO. Corticosterone administration after a single-trial contextual fear conditioning does not influence the strength and specificity of recent and remote memory in rats. Physiology & Behavior, v. 171, p. 175-180, MAR 15 2017. (11/10062-8)

CORREA, MOISES DOS SANTOS; VAZ, BARBARA DOS SANTOS; VIEIRA GRISANTI, GABRIEL DAVID; QUEIROZ DE PAIVA, JOSELISA PERES; TIBA, PAULA AYAKO; FORNARI, RAQUEL VECCHIO. Relationship between footshock intensity, post-training corticosterone release and contextual fear memory specificity over time. PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINOLOGY, v. 110, DEC 2019. (11/10062-8, 15/26983-6, 17/03820-0)