Title: The link between memory and stress | CNN
Headings: Chronic stress can hurt your memory
Chronic stress can hurt your memory
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Studies show that chronic stress can trigger long-term changes in your brain
Memory recall is worse with low vs. high levels of anxiety
Stress helps encode traumatic memories as a defense against future threats
(CNN) —
Do you tend to forget things when you’re stressed? Like when you’re late for a meeting and can’t remember where you left your car keys? Or when you have to give a big presentation and suddenly forget all your talking points seconds before you start? There’s nothing like stress to make your memory go a little spotty. A 2010 study found that chronic stress reduces spatial memory: the memory that helps you recall locations and relate objects. Hence, your missing car keys. University of Iowa researchers recently found a connection between the stress hormone cortisol and short-term memory loss in older rats. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience this week, showed that cortisol reduced synapses – connections between neurons – in the animals’ pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain that houses short-term memory. But there’s a difference between how your brain processes long-term job stress, for example, and the stress of getting into a car accident.