The Effect Of Stress On The Brain

This analysis persists of key points, about The article “Stress and the brain by Janet Elder”. The author forged an excellent informative piece to educate the reader on the effects of stress on the brain. The author states that “Stress can be both good and bad. It is part of life, and your brain and body respond to it”. The author clarifies that, "Whether stress is harmful or helpful depends on the amount of stress, how severe it is, and how long it lasts".

Stress is very well known for just what it means: STRESS. Its effect on human beings from a local and a global standpoint is far greater than any of us imagine. Stress can overtake one’s body physically, mentally, emotionally, as well as behavioral aspects. This is not something to take lightly. This is actually very serious. If you notice, it’s not just older people that die this day and time with heart attacks, suicide, and things of this nature. People of all ages. Older people, younger people, and even really young people. Children, yes, I said children. Don’t automatically think that stress only affects older people that have lived a longer

Stress is a big factor in everyday life. It influences how we approach life and events. Stress is why people run tight schedules and diet regularly. The power stress has is a negative effect over our brain and our body. Many people do not understand how to cope with stress. Therefore, people suffer from physical illness due to stress. Learning is not taking place when someone undergoes stress.

Memory is the internal representation of an event or experience and is a constructive process that organizes and shapes information. Memory allows people to learn from personal experiences and learn to adapt and respond to the changing environment. Memory plays a critical role in learning processes. Memory allows for information storage and retrieval of information previously learned. Memory and learning are interdependent in that memory exists because of previous learning, and learning needs memory to create connections and build upon learned knowledge. Research confirms that acute stress affects memory. The techniques used to learn material affects the strength of memory against the effects of stress. Researchers Amy M. Smith, Victoria A.

The part of the brain that is in charge of memory is called the hippocampus, which is part of the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is in charge of thinking, problem solving, and many different kinds of language skills. People that have a problem with their hippocampus can have trouble remembering new details they have taken in. There are also many different parts of the hippocampus that apply directly to the memory. These parts include short-term memory, long-term memory, sensory memory, and the constructive processes. Short-term memory is the information that stays in your brain only when you are thinking about it, about 20 to 30 seconds. After this, it is most likely forgotten. Long-term memory is when your hippocampus keeps track of facts you learn, ideas you have, and experiences. Even when people stop thinking about these things, the memory can last a lifetime. Another part of the hippocampus, sensory memory, remembers information only for one or two seconds. The brain creates a mental image that disappears when you stop directly thinking about a particular thing. The last part of the hippocampus is the constructive processes. Constructive processes are memories that your brain makes up in order to make sense of a detail in which you only remember some of the details. The few details that the brain remembers are combined with other small details that your brain adds in order for it to

Whenever you learn something new or you experience something, it's encoded in your brain, and it's encoded by subtle changes in the strength of connections between neurons. For example, one study showed that the white matter in an adults' brains changed as they learned how to juggle over a period of several months. "They found that if you scan [the brains of] adults before they learn how to juggle, and then three months later, you can see changes in the brain structure," (Dumontheil).

The aim of this study is to assess the effects of post-traumatic stress on brain functioning, in particular executive functioning and information processing of children and adolescents. This study also aims to evaluate prazosin as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents. Specifically, the study focuses on the treatment of sleep disturbances such as insomnia, nightmares and altered sleep schedules. The hypotheses of this study is that the subjects with PTSD will perform weaker in the tasks given compared to healthy subjects, and that prazosin will improve their sleep cycles and overall conditions.

The news article I have decided to focus on is called “Chronic Stress Can Damage brain Structure and Connectivity”. The author, Christopher Bergland, discusses a study that was done at Berkeley and researchers discovered that chronic stress actually causes long-term changes in the brain. Bergland (2014) makes an interesting point in the beginning of the article about how children who are exposed to chronic stress are more likely that have problems with anxiety and mood disorders. A majority of the article focuses on the “revolutionary” experiments Daniela Kaufter, a UC Berkeley associate professor, conducted. These experiments are so significant because they show that “chronic stress and elevated levels of cortisol can generate more overproduction of myelin-producing cells and fewer neurons than normal.” Bergland (2014) then discusses the “grey matter” in the brain, which is packed full of nerve cell bodies and is where the brain does higher functions. He also discusses “white matter”, which is full of axons that connect neurons and makes a network of communications between different regions of the brain. The author (2014) says that the white matter in the brain is called that because the myelin sheath that surrounds the axons is white and fatty “and speeds the flow of electrical signals between neurons and brain regions.” Kaufer’s experiments focus specifically on the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory and emotions and can shrink under periods of stress. The

Imagine that something happens to your loved ones and you find them pulse less and not breathing. Would you know how to save them? “Our breathing and heartbeat can stop for a number of reasons, but death does not have to be the outcome” (Wiley). Simply knowing CPR could make a dramatic difference in the lives of you and your loved ones. Knowing and taking CPR classes are very significant as it can save people’s lives.

Many people encounter stress throughout their everyday lives. Some people are not aware how much of an impact stress can cause damage to their brain. Studies have shown that women have a higher risk for stress compared to men. Women are more likely to stress about social factors, while men, on the other hand, stress very little about situations that encounter in their life (Roszkowski et. al, 2016).

Our learning process is a very complex thing. Our brains have to take in the information and turn it in to knowledge. In the article “The Biology of Learning” by Stephen Londe, it says that our brains go through this long process in order for us to memorize the information. However, every brain works differently, how we each have a different learning style, how we collaborate information, how sleep affects learning, and how it processes the information. According to The Biology of Learning our brains have to go through a long process to remember the new information learned. The process of learning is very complex, there is two major components of learning. The first major component is understanding the new information that

Last night I attended a lecture at Lamar University about how the brain functions and how to improve it. Dr. Medina, author of Brain Rules, discussed important topics about the brain. In his first segment he discussed how overly stressed brain does not function to its best ability. He said stressed brains do not learn as easily as non-stressed brains. Secondly, he discussed the executive function which is neurologically based cognitive skills and emotional self-regulation. Those with high executive functions will go on to be better leaders, get a higher salary, and have better relationships. The executive function can be tested as early as age four, and the executive function can determine how high one will score on the SAT. Lastly, he discussed

We can have focused on bringing on by Cataclysmic occasions which, as indicated by Feldman are occasions that can influence numerous individuals in the meantime and are "calamities, for example, tornado and plane accidents, and terrorist assaults". Different components are close to home hassles and can be created by occasions, for example, a separation, passing or a friend or family member or the departure of a vocation. The other class is the thing that Feldman alludes to as foundation hassles and are the things that affect our everyday life. (Feldman, 2009)

A substantial amount of Canadians experience stress in their lives. In fact, nearly one-quarter of the population over the age of 15 are stressed on a daily basis (Statistics Canada, 2013). Stress can be defined as a mental and emotional state of tension, in which one perceives the environment around them to be strenuous and overwhelming. Although some stress is necessary for survival, it can adversely affect both the physical and mental health. Its detrimental effects include but are not limited to: lack of confidence, concentration, motivation, decision making and increased heartrate, sweating, tension, as well as other physical and psychological problems such as headaches and insomnia (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2015). These health complications strongly emphasize the need for further research in ways to cope with, and reduce stress. Henceforth, the purpose of this paper is to use established research to better understand stress, then propose my own study that would investigate another stress-reduction method.

Neural firing is connected to mental experiences. Whenever you perceive, think, feel or remember something, neurons fire in a pattern that has been shaped by past experiences. Therefore the past influences how we learn, remember and it creates new pathways.