Stress may harm memory: a study from India
The best way to learn English? Don’t be stressed!
Read this article from The Hindu, an Indian newspaper, and try to memorize some new words.
High levels of stress can block memory processes, according to new research on pond snails.
Researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Calgary trained snails and found that when they were exposed to multiple stressful events they were unable to remember what they had learned.
Previous research has shown that stress also affects human ability to remember.
The new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that experiencing multiple stressful events simultaneously has a cumulative detrimental effect on memory.
“It’s really important to study how different forms of stress interact as this is what animals, including people, frequently experience in real life,” said Dr. Sarah Dalesman, from the University of Exeter, formally at the University of Calgary.
“By training snails, and then observing their behaviour and brain activity following exposure to stressful situations, we found that a single stressful event resulted in some impairment of memory but multiple stressful events prevented any memories from being formed,” Dr. Dalesman said.
What does it mean? Click and find out!
pond (n) a still body of water smaller than a lake.
stressful (adj) extremely irritating to the nerves
to affect (v) to change or influence something. If something affects something else, it has aneffect on it
detrimental (adj) harmful or damaging
exposure (n) the state of being put into a situation in which something harmful or dangerous might affect you
impairment (n) the fact that a part of your body is unable to do something fully
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