Effects of D-Glucose on Acquisition of Implicit Mirror-Tracing and Explicit Word Recall in a Non-Diabetic Sample

Glucose, a well-known memory modulator in humans and rodents, was examined for its potential to enhance acquisition of an implicit mirror-tracing task and recall of an explicit wordlist task. Participants consumed a lemon flavored beverage sweetened with either saccharin (23.7mg) or d-glucose (10, 100, or 500mg/kg or 50g). Ten minutes post-consumption, each subject studied a wordlist for 5-min followed immediately by 10 consecutive trials on the mirror-tracing task. Following the last mirror-tracing trial, subjects were given a free recall test for the wordlist. Results indicated that d-glucose did not have any differential effects on wordlist recall or acquisition of the mirror-tracing task. The use of different doses of d-glucose suggests that glucose may not modulate acquisition of sensorimotor implicit memory tasks and that wordlist recall tests are not sensitive to the memory modulating effects of glucose in non-diabetic young adults.