Friday, July 24, 2009

Acute stress can produce a beneficial effect on learning and memory

New York: Even as being stressed out is harmful to ones health, a fascinating new research has suggested that acute stress actually helps to perform better.

Researchers in the United States at the University at Buffalo showed that acute stress -- a short stressful incident -- may enhance learning and memory by increasing transmission of the neurotransmitter glutamate.

The study identifies a novel mechanism that underlies the impact of acute stress on working memory, "a cognitive process depending on glutamate receptor-mediated excitatory signals in prefrontal cortex circuits," said Zhen Yan, professor of physiology and biophysics at the premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York.

Yan said stress hormones "have both protective and damaging effects on the body". "This paper and others we have in the pipeline explain why we need stress to perform better, but don't want to be stressed out," said Yan, the senior author on the study, which appeared in the latest edition of the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers underlined that "these studies should bring new insights into the complex actions of stress in different circumstances that may be applicable to humans in the future".

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