News Acute Stress Primes Brain For Better Cognitive And Mental Performance

[MyPTSD]

Chronic stress is known to cause major health problems, yet acute stress can be good for you. A new study shows why. Stress generates new nerve cells in the brain that, two weeks later, help you learn better. Thus, unlike chronic stress, acute stress primes the brain for improved cognitive and mental performance.

[DLMURL="http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/ptsd/~3/99sVXZ3MXWo/130416204546.htm"]Continue reading...[/DLMURL]

 

[AS1975]

Talk about putting a silver lining on an otherwise awfully bleak incident. I wonder, might that not explain why those who survive traumatic events tend to (or seem to) survive similar events in the future? Or is it that those who can learn rapidly/effectively are the ones who tend to survive?

 

[ms spock]

That is absolutely fascinating. I will have to reread it again.

 

[anthony]

There have always been lots of good stressors that help us daily, motivate us, and keep our mental capacity healthy. Then there are the bad stressors, which can cause us issues, especially long-term. Just look at the PTSD cup explanations.

 

[AS1975]

Anthony, I look at the cup explanation but I still wonder. As it is starting to be proven that PTSD causes irreversible changes, is it unlikely that some of these are beneficial? That said, could it be that some element of hyper-vigilance and arousal could be affecting cognitive functioning for the better? Attention to detail is an important aspect of learning, OCD probably helps it, to some extent, as well.

 

[anthony]

PTSD has always caused an irreversible change which makes recurrence part and parcel of the illness once you have it, however; neuroscience has also proven the brain is malleable and brain cells don't die and never reform, but instead new brain cells are created and the brain can repair itself.

Neurologists can not clearly state at this given time what PTSD even is, where it exactly forms and what specifically should be used to target it. PTSD is very much a statistical guess based on analysis of sufferers, to date.

In other words, lets try x on y amount of sufferers, and if a majority is affected positively, we'll call it successful. Now repeat and see if it continues. With each of these tests they narrow down something neurologically and progressively become closer to knowing what PTSD is...

Being stressed at work to perform, for example, has shown statistically that its healthy for a person to be motivated this way, providing they also decompress afterwards. The pro's are that they feel validated, rewarded, accomplished... the con's can be that if they don't decompress afterwards and hold onto that stress, it compounds and shuts them down later due to overload.