In the past, it was believed that stress could increase our ability to learn and to be creative. This belief is behind students scurrying from one class to the next, and for employers to expect employees to perform at peak levels while burning the candle from both ends. However, recent research on the effects of stress on learning shows that learning and creativity (big-picture thinking, future planning) are compromised under stress.
Pavlov, who introduced the world to the conditioned response, was one of the first researchers to recognize the negative influence that stress has on the learning process. Further research has confirmed Pavlov’s findings. Simply, the more stress you are under, the lower your learning potential.
Here are some reasons why stress interferes with learning:
- Stress can atrophy neural connections.
- Stress can wipe out memory by destroying neurons.
- Stress can inhibit the creation of new brain cells.
- Stress can affect specialized neurons (glia cells) by preventing the transportation of nutrients, the clean-up of neuron waste, and the growth of the insulation that surrounds neural wiring.
- Stress can promote the negative expression of specific genes, resulting in the creation of neural tangles, which obstruct the working memory.
- Stress can cause neurochemical reactions, which can confuse the brain’s ability to prioritize information.
- Stress can make you sick, thus reducing your capacity to learn.
- Stress can destroy the brain’s ability to drop into the incubation state.
- Stress can cause a shift in neural energy away from your most evolved neural structures.
PS – ‘stressed’ spelled backwards is ‘desserts’ (read: chocolate). Coincidence? I think not!
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