ESTROGEN AND MEMORY [ back to What's New ]
A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience (5/1/99) indicates that women begin losing short term memory capacity after menopause, because cyclic release of high doses of estrogen are needed to preserve the vigor of neurons in the hippocampus, the inner temporal lobe area where working memories are encoded for long term storage. Chronic low dose hormone replacement therapy did not stop progressive loss of dendritic spines in hippocampal neurons, because only cyclic bursts of large quantities of estrogen works.