Stress on Human Memory and Cognitive Capabilities

¶ … Stress on Human Memory and Cognitive Capabilities

Types of Stresses on Short-Term Memory

Symptoms of Short-Term Memory

Stress weakens a human's ability to be able to pass proper chemicals through the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is an assemblage of blood vessels that defends the brain from toxins that circulate through one's body (Franklin Institute, 2004).

Evidence of stress on the short-term memory includes difficulty to learn new things, dizziness, headaches, and nausea (Franklin Institute, 2004).

Effects of Stress on Short-Term Memory

When stress takes place in the human body, hormones are released that divert blood glucose from the brain's hippocampus (Franklin Institute, 2004).

The lack of energy that is provided by the lost glucose creates the hippocampus to become concerned about the lack of energy. This fright causes an inability to create accurate new memories (Franklin Institute, 2004).

This can be a result o a onetime traumatic event in a person's life, or it can be a result of a lifetime of stress (Franklin Institute, 2004).

c. How to Alleviate Stress on Short-Term Memory

i. Research displays that the greater event of stress that a person must endure, the higher likelihood the person is of not remembering or having other memory problems (Weiss & Davis, 2009).

ii. Favored recommendation to reverse short-term memory loss was sleep and relaxation (Weiss & Davis, 2009).

iii. If an event took place in the workplace, it is best for a person to be given an adequate amount of time to process the information about the stressful event, or the memory could worsen (Weiss & Davis, 2009).

2. Types of Stresses on Long-Term Memory

a. Symptoms of Long-Term Memory

i. Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common form of long-term memory stress (HelpGuide.org, 2010).

ii. Symptoms of PTSD include re-experiencing the traumatic event, physical reactions to events, motions, sounds, or objects that remind the person of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares (HelpGuide.org, 2010).

iii. For regular long-term-memory stress, symptoms may include anxiety and nervousness (Franklin Institute, 2004).

b. Effects of Stress on Long-Term Memory

i. One study displayed results from a rat lab test. This study proved that even if a being does not display stress immediately or outwardly, the stress will affect them later on (Bower, 2005).

ii. When performing a test on long-term memory post-stress, the test subjects scored lower than those who were not introduced to stress (Bower, 2005).

iii. If stress is affecting short-term memory, long-term memory is being prevented (Bower, 2005).

c. How to Alleviate Stress on Long-Term Memory

i. In order to relieve stress on the long-term memory, one must focus on improving their stress factors on their short-term memory. When the hippocampus is without proper blood glucose, it has difficulties recording information that is converted to long-term memory by the same sector of the brain (Rossman, 2011).

3. Types of Stresses on Memory

a. Symptoms of Memory

i. One obvious sign of stress on one's memory would be that of forgetfulness (Holguin, 2004).

ii. If a person is stressed, they may be unable to concentrate or have abstract reasoning as it requires memory for these processes (Holguin, 2004).

b. Effects of Stress on Memory

i. When the brain is affected by stress, its different regions respond differently. Some stressors may greater affect short-term memory, others may affect long-term memory (Rossman, 2011).

ii. Washington State University School of Medicine found that the high levels of Cortisol produced by physical or psychological stressors for more than a couple days can have damaging long-term effects on a person's memory (Washington University School Of Medicine).