Title: Stress and Cognitive Decline | HeartMath Institute
Headings: Stress and Cognitive Decline
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Stress and Cognitive Decline
Effects of Stress on Memory and Cognitive Functions
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Content: Memory and other cognitive processes gradually diminish as we grow older, but research in the last several decades shows those who experience persistent or high levels of stress are especially vulnerable. Although much remains to be learned about the causes of mental decline, it has been well documented recently that stress is an important contributing factor, including to the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia. A research team in Sweden observed in a recently published 38-year study of 800 women that “psychosocial stressors in midlife were associated with incidence of AD (Alzheimer’s disease) and long-standing distress, over several decades.” The study, conducted at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, concluded “this suggests that common psychosocial stressors may have severe and long-standing physiological and psychological consequences.” Effects of Stress on Memory and Cognitive Functions
The negative effects of stress on memory and other cognitive functions has been widely explored for decades in numerous research projects using a wide range of methodology. A study out of the Netherlands published in 2007, The effects of cortisol increase on long-term memory retrieval during and after acute psychosocial stress, examined short- and long-term memory. Students were tasked with retrieving/recalling emotionally negative and neutral word associations in this study, which is referenced by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information website. The 70 male participants learned some of the words one day before the tests and other words five weeks earlier. “Within the stress condition, retrieval of negative words, 5 weeks after learning, was impaired both during and after the stress task, compared to the control group,” the researchers wrote. A University of California, Irvine study, Mechanisms of late-onset cognitive decline after early-life stress, correlated memory dysfunction in young adult rats that experienced “early-life psychological stress” with humans. “