Stress and Memory

I deal with something like 90-100 students every semester so I see my share of stressed out people. One major issue is how to reduce the stress so they can function better--meaning how can they reduce the dreaded test anxiety.



We teachers intuitively know that stress can affect learning. The physiologists have linked stress to inceased secretion of a hormone know as cortisol. This bad boy hormone is also linked to plaquing up our arteries.



New brain research has uncovered a new mechanism by which stress can affect brain cells. This new mechanism involves another hormone called corticotropin releasing hormone. This hormone is released by the hypothalamus and helps to regulate the release of a number of hormones including cortisol. The problem is that it also adversely affects neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with memory.



This of course was discovered in lab mice but hey, they can remember too.



I guess the message is that you need to be relaxed in order to learn. But not too relaxed--I don't like snoring in my class!



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