It’s never nice to feel emotionally strained, but a little stress here and there could actually help your short-term memory in the long run.
New research by University of Georgia (UGA) neuroscientists using more than 1,200 healthy young adults suggests that psychological stress is only harmful when it crosses a certain threshold.
It appears to have a positive effect on a person’s working memory at relatively low and intermediate levels.
In the study, participants performed a memory test based on recognizing specific tools and faces. Meanwhile, their brains were being scanned.
Looking back at brain activity during the task, the researchers found that the participants who reported higher levels of stress on a questionnaire showed less activity in the area of their brain responsible for short-term memory, also known as working memory.
Meanwhile, those exposed to low-to-moderate stress showed increased activation of working memory in their brains. Furthermore, this activity coincided with better performance on the memory test.
The results don’t directly test stress levels or whether stress affects working memory, but they do provide preliminary evidence that a link is at play.
The notion that stress, depending on its severity, can have positive and negative effects on human cognition originated from the Hormesis Hypothesis, a theory derived from toxicology. While the validity of hormesis is debatable in other areas, it pushes a new frontier in psychological research.
In 2006, a to learn among just 20 healthy adults found that psychosocial stress can impair working memory, but only when stress levels are relatively high. If they are lower then no effect is seen.
The results suggest that environmental stress isn’t always detrimental to how our brains function, but does that mean it’s helpful?
At low enough doses, some researchers suspect this might be the case.
To date, few studies have addressed the hormesis hypothesis and never directly, but the early results are interesting to look at.
Studies like the current one suggest that preconditioning promotes an animal’s stress tolerance. In other words, experiencing stress might help a person cope better with stress later on.
In fact, managing stress could allow animals to better anticipate future problems and respond accordingly.
For example, when adult rats are chronically exposed to mild stress, some studies show that they have improved working memory.
Also in our species some studies show that low to moderate stress levels are associated with memory benefits.
“Based on this hypothesis, preconditioning underlies an inoculation phase in which the organism is cued to reorganize, prepare, and behaviorally deal more effectively with subsequent stress,” says Assaf Oshri, a psychology researcher at UGA, and colleagues write.
But when a person’s mental or emotional pressure grows beyond what they’ve learned to handle, or persists over time, Stress can prove to be harmful. It can contribute muscle tension, high blood pressure, heart disease, immune system problems, bowel disease, poor working memory, and more.
Interestingly, in the current study, those participants who reported having a stronger social support network appeared to be better at managing their stress.
Family and friends could therefore be a protective buffer against increasing feelings of pressure and tension.
“The results demonstrated in the present study demonstrate the cognitive benefits of exposure to low to moderate stress levels,” the authors said conclude.
“We hope that future longitudinal studies can advance our understanding of how hormesis may underlie the development of stress adaptation and possibly resilience in individuals living in stressful environments.”
The study was published in neuropsychology.
