GLUCOCORTICOID EFFECTS ON MEMORY CONSOLIDATIONExtensive evidence from both animal and human studies indicates that memory traces are initially fragile after training and become consolidated only over time (McGaugh, 2000). Memory formation can be influenced during this critical time window by many kinds of manipulations, including electrical brain stimulation and injections of proteinsynthesis inhibitors (Duncan, 1949; McGaugh, 1966; Flood, Bennett, Orme, & Rosenzweig, 1975; Davis & Squire, 1984). An early study has demonstrated that systemic injections of glucocorticoids given after a training experience reverse the amnestic effects of protein-synthesis inhibitor administration on inhibitory avoidance retention in mice (Flood, Vidal, Bennett, Orme, Vasquez, & Jarvik, 1978). Subsequent studies have shown that systemic injections of moderate doses of corticosterone or the synthetic glucocorticoid dexamethasone enhance long-term memory for inhibitory avoidance training when administered shortly, but not several hours, after a training experience (Kovacs, Telegdy, & Lissak, 1977; Flood et al., 1978; Roozendaal & McGaugh, 1996; Roozendaal, Williams, & McGaugh, 1999b). Glucocorticoid effects on memory enhancement for inhibitory avoidance training follow an inverted-U-shape dose–response relationship. Similar biphasic effects of posttraining glucocorticoids in rats have been observed in a contextual-cue fear conditioning task (Pugh, Tremblay, Fleshner, & Rudy, 1997; Cordero & Sandi, 1998) and a water-maze spatial task (Sandi, Loscertales, & Guanza, 1997) as well as with training of 1-day-old chicks in an avoidance task (Sandi & Rose, 1994a, 1997). The evidence that adrenocortical hormones administered after a training experience enhance memory consolidation suggests that these hormones released after an acute stressful event may affect memory for that event. This view is supported by the finding that removal of endogenous corticosterone by adrenalectomy impairs memory in a water-maze spatial task (Oitzl & de Kloet, 1992; Roozendaal, Portillo-Marquez, & McGaugh, 1996b). The adrenalectomy-induced memory impairment is reversed by posttraining injections of dexamethasone in doses comparable to those known to enhance memory in the inhibitory avoidance task (Roozendaal et al., 1996b). Such findings strongly suggest that the memory impairment is caused by the lack of glucocorticoids and support the view that memory consolidation processes depend on posttraining activation of glucocorticoid-sensitive pathways.