‘A little’ stress is good for your memory, study says

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What you need to know:

  • Human beings possess a hermetic zone also known as a “sweet spot” where working memory can literally be upgraded
  • Research produced evidence regarding a process through which mild stress levels produce neurocognitive benefits

Stress is commonly associated with mental health issues which are often a cause for concern.

But did you know that a little bit of stress is actually good for efficient brain functioning especially among workers?

A new study has shown that in certain circumstances, stress can positively impact people’s “working memory.”

Working memory refers to the mental “notepad” containing short lived thoughts and is also responsible for temporary information holding and processing, as defined by the team of scholars based in the United States.

Human beings possess a hermetic zone also known as a “sweet spot” where working memory can literally be upgraded, as explained by researchers at the University of Georgia in the US.
However, according to the study published in the Neuropsychologia journal, if the stress levels get extremely high, it can harm cognitive function.

“Stress levels that are low to moderate are beneficial to the working memory,” the study reads in part. “The research brings out emerging evidence regarding a process through which mild stress levels produce neurocognitive benefits.”

The researchers engaged 1,000 youths aged between 22 and 37 and studied their neural responses during the challenge on working memory.

Magnetic resonance 

In the working memory task also known as n-back in psychology, individuals are exposed to a stimulus sequence that signals when there is a match between the present stimulus and the one in the initial sequence.

To determine stress levels, the subjects were taken through functional magnetic resonance imaging scans used to measure the activity of the brain by detecting blood flow-related changes.

The four “psychosocial resources” which control how individuals cope with stressful events were assessed as the subjects were also required to indicate to what level they felt that “their lives are extremely stressful beyond their limit”.

According to the results, brain network working memory during the challenge indicated an increase in neural activation as well as increased behavioural performance among participants who reported perceived stress levels of low to moderate.

The findings, however, gave an implication that brain cognition is boosted by stress only to a certain level.