Washington, March 11 (IANS) Being subject to chronic stress not only clouds your thinking but also impairs memory, new research says.
It uncovered a neural (brain cell) mechanism that directly links stress with impaired memory and clouded thinking.
Stress
hormones are known to influence the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a brain
region that controls high level "executive" functions such as working
memory and decision making, reports the journal Neuron.
"Previous
work has shown that chronic stress impairs PFC-mediated behaviours,
like mental flexibility and attention, explains study author Zhen Yan,
State University of New York, according to a State University statement.
Yan and colleagues examined whether repeated stress had a
negative influence on glutamate receptors in juvenile rats. Glutamate
signalling plays a critical role in PFC function.
They found
that in response to repeated stress, there was a significant loss of
glutamate receptors, which resulted in a deficit of PFC-mediated
cognitive processes, such as working memory and decision making.