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   How Stress Changes The Brain   
      
   The Huffington Post	   
   By Carolyn Gregoire   
   Posted: 11/18/2014 8:24 am EST    
   Updated: 11/18/2014 8:59 am EST STRESS   
      
   We tend to think of stress as an immediate problem: The boss hovering over our   
   desks; the mad dash to the subway at the end of a long day. And in the   
   short-term, stress makes us feel irritable, anxious, tense, distracted and   
   forgetful. But that's only    
   part of the story.   
      
   Over time, elevated levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, can chip away at   
   our physical, mental and emotional health. The link between chronic stress and   
   the potential for mental health conditions -- such as post-traumatic stress   
   disorder, anxiety,    
   depression and other mood disorders -- is well-established. But what kind of   
   changes -- both fleeting and lasting -- are actually taking place in the brain   
   when we experience a stressful event?   
      
   Here are four ways stress changes your brain.   
      
   Stress could trigger a chemical change that makes you irritable   
      
   Many of us know that we're not pleasant to be around when we're stressed out   
   -- we may get irritable and grumpy. Under pressure, many people get distracted   
   and forgetful and this could be a sign of the destructive effects of stress in   
   the brain.   
      
   French researchers discovered an enzyme, when triggered by stress, that   
   attacks a molecule in the hippocampus which is responsible for regulating   
   synapses. When the synapses are modified, fewer neural connections are able to   
   be made in the area.   
      
   "These effects lead subjects to lose their sociability, avoid interactions   
   with their peers and have impaired memory or understanding," a university   
   press release explained.   
      
   Chronic stress can shrink your brain   
      
   Stressful life events could harm your brain's memory and learning capacity by   
   reducing the volume of gray matter in brain regions associated with emotions,   
   self-control and physiological functions.   
      
   Chronic stress and/or depression can contribute to lost volume in the brain's   
   medial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with emotional and cognitive   
   impairment. Researchers found that this is particularly true of people with a   
   genetic marker that can    
   disrupt the formation of synaptic connections between brain cells.   
      
   A 2008 study on mice found that even short-term stress could lead to   
   communication problems among brain cells in regions associated with memory and   
   learning.   
      
   One stressful event can kill brain cells   
      
   As we learn new information, we constantly generate new neurons in the   
   hippocampus -- a brain region associated with learning, memory and emotion.   
   But ongoing stress can halt the production of new neurons in the hippocampus   
   and may also affect the speed    
   of connections between hippocampal cells, according to Scientific American.   
   What's more, an animal study found that a single stressful event can destroy   
   newly created neurons in the hippocampus.   
      
   University of California at Berkeley researchers found that the brain in a   
   state of chronic stress generates more myelin-producing cells and fewer   
   neurons than a typical brain would, resulting in excess myelin (an insulating   
   layer of protective coating    
   around neurons) in the hippocampus.   
      
   "The hippocampus is especially vulnerable to ongoing emotional distress,   
   because of the damaging effects of cortisol," psychologist Daniel Goleman   
   wrote in Social Intelligence.   
      
   Stress can disrupt memory by triggering the brain's threat response   
      
   While cortisol hampers the activity of the hippocampus, it increases the size   
   and activity of the amygdala, the brain's main center for emotional responses   
   and motivation. The amygdala is responsible for fear processing, threat   
   perception and the fight-   
   or-flight response. Increased activity means we're in a state of reacting to   
   perceived threat, which can have the effect of restricting our ability to take   
   in new information. It can also heighten emotional reactions.   
      
   "After a day when a student gets panicked by a pop quiz, he'll remember the   
   details of that panic far more than any of the material in the quiz," Goleman   
   wrote.   
      
      
   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/brain-stress_n_6148470.   
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