Stressing experiences impacts the individual’s memory and learning experiences. This paper investigates how these experiences have been reported to enhance and weaken human memory, especially glucocorticoid hormones. Consequently, stressful conditions on the human brain have led to various mental issues such as depression and anxieties. Various theories, learning, biological, and extinction, have been developed, which help to understand the root causes of stress in human memory. This paper investigates how stress negatively impacts people, such as causing individual exhaustion, cognitive illnesses, and morbid situations. Stress has been depicted to limit the individual's consciousness and efforts in processing information. This research shows that the human brain has a neural circuitry that determines the memory threats which cause stress. Hippocampus has been reported to help the human brain in regulating behavioral and cognitive stressors. Lastly, this research paper helps humans understand the cause of stress in their cognitive and help in relating the environmental, biological, and cognitive factors that lead to stress. Stress has acute and chronic changes in the memory, which is destructive. The human brain has a different level of stress facilitated by cognitive challenges. Humans should be taught the ways to handle stressful events to help reduce burdens in the memories.
Stress Effects on Human Memory
Introduction
Stress on humans is a powerful regulator of their memory functions. Stress poses negative impacts on various aspects of the human memory, such as the explicit, implicit, and working memory. Additionally, stress leads to chronic and severe alterations in the memory parts, which leads to short- and long-term memory damage. Excess release of hormonal stress impacts short- and long-term memory recalls. Besides, stress can result in re-connection in the human brain, causing possibilities of mental issues like anxiety and other mental health disorders. From the research conducted, it is evident that stress on humans affects their memory performance negatively. Various theories have discussed the impacts of stress on human memory. According to the learning theory, chronic stress leads to impairments in human memory, which might be temporary (Gewirtz & Radke, 2010) . Stress , hormones, and the adrenalin released when individuals are stressed are major regulators of human learning and memory processes (Vogel & Schwabe, 2016) . Besides, the extinction theory states that the integration of the stressors and the stressor-related principles determines the extinction damages. Also, the stress-controlled startle reactions for rapid extinction and ratings for delayed extinction. Additionally, it leads to distressing events and risk factors for trauma and anxiety, and other disorders correlated to the stressful events (Klinke et al., 2020). Moreover, the biological cascades show that there are extrinsic and intrinsic stimulants that evoke biological reactions that lead to stress. The severity of the stimulants can result in changes in the evenness to other adverse effects such as death. Therefore, stress is a factor that causes many pathophysiological complications, which leads to the emergence of diseases, especially in people working in stressful conditions.
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Evidence-Selection and Reporting of Research
From the various studies conducted in the past, it is evident that stress negatively impacts short- and long-term memories. According to Scott (2021), stress negatively affects human memory, causing exhaustion due to memory processes. Scott asserts that stress causes memory fatigue and mental impairments. Mental problems are associated with attention issues and working memory. Besides, Scott (2021) states that stress hinders the memory formations if it happens before or during the encoding process. Another research by Yaribeygi et al. (2017) on the impacts of stress on memory showed that stress has harmful effects on human memory. The authors assert that although stress sometimes helps preserve the cell balance, they cause mental illnesses and pathological conditions. They facilitate various mental problems, such as depression, especially if it is serious and long-term. Stress further leads to health issues like intestinal barriers and rising emotional irritability. Yaribeygi et al. (2017) argues that an individual exposed to stress is impacted by pathophysiologic alterations that are manifested through moods, behavioral and mental disorders.
Another research by Luethi et al. (2009) showed that exposing the human memory to social stressors leads to mental disability. According to Luethi et al. (2009), stress impacts mental abilities, limiting their need to be conscious, effortful information processing and thus minimizing their efficacy in performance. Additionally, the authors emphasized that increased levels of glucocorticoids have complicated impacts on memory functioning, leading to negative implications. Additionally, the psychological stress and provision of corticosteroids on human memory constantly harms the human working and explicit memory formations. Memory processes can be extremely affected by human experiences in life. Humans undergo various stressful experiences in life, such as moderate stress during the learning process; this facilitates information storage. However, experiencing many severe stressful conditions is usually destructive to memory performance.
Interpretation and Critical Analysis of the Research
The research has shown that stress has an adverse effect on human memories. The researchers have asserted that stress on the human memory causes effects such as fatigue, depression, mental impairments, and pathological conditions. The research has also shown that stress triggers the human memory response and, when severe, harms the human memory. The neuronic circuitry in the human brain determines the threats that lead to stress. According to the studies, stress impairs human memory and also increases individual infection to other diseases, such as diabetes. Similarly, Bernstein (2016) states that acute stress impairs the brain's normal functioning by disrupting the synapse control making an individual evade social interactions. The research has shown that stress takes various forms; for example, it can be caused by short-and-long-term events, such as arguments between loved ones. Also, they occur due to repetitive situations such as having a long-term illness. Having repetitive and intense stressing conditions for a long time becomes toxic in the human mind and disrupts its normal functioning. Also, the research has shown that toxic stress alters the hippocampal functioning in the human mind causing negative effects, such as prospective memory (Chen et al., 2019). The impacts on stress rely on certain memory processes and the temporal closeness between stressful events and memory processes.
Some of the strengths of the articles include identifying the root causes of mental problems and their adverse effects on memory performance, such as implicit, explicit, and working memory. Also, the studies have identified the human, environmental, and mental conditions that lead to stress. They have also reinforced and expounded on the complications of acute stress in the brain. However, the studies had some weaknesses; first, they never included research on both genders while carrying to determine the impacts of gender difference on stress on different memory domains. Secondly, the researchers never carried out a diverse research regarding age range to help people understand how stress causes and impacts people at different ages. Lastly, the studies never included the psycho-physiological stress evaluations, such as the heart rates, while determining the causes of stress.
Logical Arguments and Synthesis
Stress in the human brain impacts and impairs its normal functioning. When individuals experience stressful conditions, their brain releases the cortisol that stimulates the body, making it respond instantly. Stress destroys the brain cells, which can even lead to their reduction in size (Bernstein, 2016). When the human brain experiences stress, some parts occupy the prefrontal cortex, which helps in coordinating mental tasks such as social interactions, decision making, and judgments. When an individual has stress, the level of blood sugar increases to feed the brain and help it respond. However, a prolonged rise in the level of blood sugar leads to insulin resistance and counteracts the blood sugar levels. The psychosocial stresses result in insulin resistance in which, when they become severe, makes an individual to experience health problems like diabetes. Chronic stress results in acute mental illnesses like anxiety, Alzheimer's disease, and depression. The human brain is made up of support cells and neurons, which helps in decision-making and problem solving (Cherry, 2020) . Continuous disruption of the brain functions and structure alters the brain's white and gray matter permanently, which increases the possibility of mental illnesses. Chronic stress facilitates high blood pressure leading to blood clots in the arteries and causing brain alterations that might lead to anxieties and depression ( Havard Medical School, 2020). In most situations, over-releasing stress hormones destroy long-term delayed memory recalls but increases short-term memory. The rise in short- and long-term memory is specifically parallel to emotional memory. Emotions harm the reservation of the long-term memory (Tyng et al., 2017). Emotions have a specific strong influence on attention, especially while moderating the attention refinement and motivating behavior and actions.
Long-term memory is usually impacted by leptin and glucocorticoids, which damage the human memory process's stressful actions. Distinct levels of stress in the human brain can be provoked by mental challenges and other conditions unrelated to mental functions—chronic and severe stress on humans' performance, especially in flexibility, learning, and memory. Individuals should develop strategies to help them cope with stressful conditions and prevent the damaging impacts. People should make sure they have enough sleep to make their brains function well (Havard Medical School, 2021). People should seek help from experts to develop more adaptable ways of managing stress.
Conclusion
Stress can regulate the structure of the human brain, its functions, and cognition. Stress and blood hormones are the major regulators of the human memory processes. Stress in humans can be severe and chronic hence interfering with the explicit part of the human memory. The stress adrenaline can also control brain development, and much stress can lead to long-term negative impacts on memory functions. The research has shown that exposing the human memory to chronic stress retaliates cognitive loss, which declines memory performance. Stress damages the long-and short-term recall memory. Stressed people experience difficult times while developing their interim memories and converting them into permanent memories. The research has also shown that the hippocampus controls behavioral and psychological stress. Stress in human memory relies on the cognitive processes and the proximity between memory and stress. Stress leads to brains exhaustions and other chronic illnesses like depression and high blood pressure. People should develop ways in which they would reduce stressful events.
References
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