What just happened? As educator Elizabeth Cox explains in this TedEd video, the answer lies in the complicated relationship between short-term stress and memory. When you learn something new, facts you read or hear become a memory through three main steps: Once a memory is created, it can later be retrieved by the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for your thoughts, attention, and ability to reason. In the first two stages of creating a memory, moderate stress can actually be helpful for retaining information, as hormones released in periods of stress stimulates the brain. “Your brain responds to stressful stimuli by releasing hormones known as corticosteroids, which activate a process of threat detection and threat response in the amygdala,” Cox explains. “The amygdala prompts your hippocampus to consolidate this stress-inducing experience into a memory, meanwhile the flood of corticosteroids from stress stimulates your hippocampus, also prompting memory consolidation.” Once stress becomes a chronic problem, however, it has the opposite effect on memory. The reason for this has to do with human’s fight, flight, or freeze response. This response has the ability to overrule “slower, more reasoned thought” when it perceives you’ve entered a dangerous situation so that you can react quickly and get out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, harmless but stressful events—like taking your driver’s exam—can trigger this response, causing your mind to go blank. As you begin to panic even more, the act of trying to remember can itself become a stressor, leading to a vicious cycle where the possibility of recalling what you need to know becomes even less likely. “The weeks, months, or even years of sustained corticosteroids that result from chronic stress can damage the hippocampus and decrease your ability to form new memories,” Cox says. How do we break the cycle? Here are three ways to use stress to your advantage:
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Patricia Rockman May 8, 2018
Dacher Keltner July 3, 2018
