<p>Researchers at the University of Buffalo (U-B) have shown that in mice acute stress can produce a beneficial effect on learning and memory, through the effect of the stress hormone corticosterone (cortisol in humans) on the brain's prefrontal cortex, a key region that controls learning and emotion. <br />Specifically, they demonstrated that acute stress increases transmission of the <br />neurotransmitter glutamate and improves working memory. <br />"Stress hormones have both protective and damaging effects on the body," said Zhen Yan, senior study author at UB. <br />"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."<br />To test the effect of acute stress on working memory, Yan and colleagues trained rats in a maze until they could complete it correctly 60-70 percent of the time. <br />When the rodents reached this level of accuracy for two consecutive days, half were put through a 20-minute forced swim, which served as acute stress, and then were put through the maze again.<br />Results showed that the stressed rats made significantly fewer mistakes as they went through the maze both four hours after the stressful experience and one day post-stress, compared to the non-stressed rats.<br />These findings appeared in the July online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <br /></p>
<p>Researchers at the University of Buffalo (U-B) have shown that in mice acute stress can produce a beneficial effect on learning and memory, through the effect of the stress hormone corticosterone (cortisol in humans) on the brain's prefrontal cortex, a key region that controls learning and emotion. <br />Specifically, they demonstrated that acute stress increases transmission of the <br />neurotransmitter glutamate and improves working memory. <br />"Stress hormones have both protective and damaging effects on the body," said Zhen Yan, senior study author at UB. <br />"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."<br />To test the effect of acute stress on working memory, Yan and colleagues trained rats in a maze until they could complete it correctly 60-70 percent of the time. <br />When the rodents reached this level of accuracy for two consecutive days, half were put through a 20-minute forced swim, which served as acute stress, and then were put through the maze again.<br />Results showed that the stressed rats made significantly fewer mistakes as they went through the maze both four hours after the stressful experience and one day post-stress, compared to the non-stressed rats.<br />These findings appeared in the July online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <br /></p>