The hippocampus, the operating center of memory, is the most affected by stress. Not remembering where we have put the keys or what we ate the day before is a product of this level of stress to which we are currently subjected: whether at work (pressures or concerns), academic (exams) or personal (own or family illnesses , emotional problems…). When this situation continues over time, stress can cause our brain to shrink.
This has been determined by new research carried out by scientists from the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore (India) and Shane O’Mara’s laboratory at Trinity College in Dublin (Ireland), who subjected a group of rodents -which they react similarly to humans – to various stressful situations for 120 minutes over the course of 10 days.
Before, during and after the experiment, they examined their brains using MRI tests and memory tests , finding that just three days after being stressed the hippocampus of the rats had shrunk compared to the control group.
At the end of the test, 10 days later, the hippocampus of the stressed mice had shrunk even more , detecting significant differences in memory tests between the stressed rats – which did worse – and those that were not.
Thus, the structure of the brain changes with stress and this change is also the prelude to memory loss. Bearing in mind that a few days of prolonged stress are not considered chronic stress, the results of this study are surprising to say the least as it reveals how vulnerable our official memory encoder becomes to stress.
The study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
