How Stress Affects Memory

Paper Summary:

The paper offers the psychological and neurological definitions of stress and memory and explains how men and women handle stress in different ways. The paper looks at how teenagers of both genders may be especially vulnerable to stress. The paper studies the effect acute stress has on the short term memory and how chronic stress can negatively impact both short and long term memory of a sufferer in a permanent fashion. The paper provides suggestions on how to reduce stress and considers areas of future research.

Outline:
Abstract
Introduction
What is Memory?
What is Stress?
Gender, Age and Various Stressors
Acute Stress and Memory
Chronic Stress and Memory
How to Reduce Stress?
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"A memory is a kind of neurological activity of imprinting or retrieval. Different areas of the brain coordinate different areas of memory, such as phonological, or acoustic and linguistic memory, as opposed to visual and spatial memory. These different types of memory stimulate different areas of the brain. Intense personal memories appear to affect a particular structure of the limbic system of the brain, in addition to the hippocampus. This structure is called the amygdala and regulates human reactions to fearful situations."

Sample of Sources Used:

• American Institute of Stress. (2006) Official Organizational Homepage. Retrieved 14 May 2006 at http://www.stress.org/
• Miller, Lyle H. & Alma Dell Smith. "The Different Kinds of Stress." (2003) APA Help Center. Retrieved 14 May 2006 http://www.apahelpcenter.org/articles/article.php?id=21
• "Short Term Memory." (2006) The Brain from Top to Bottom. McGill University. Retrieved 14 May 2006 http://www.thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_07/i_07_cr/i_07_cr_tra/i_07_cr_tra.htm
• "Stress and Your Health" (2004) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Womenshealth.gov navigation. Retrieved 14 May 2006 at http://familydoctor.org/278.xml#2
• "Stress--who has time for it?" (2005) From the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Website. Retrieved 14 May 2006 from the NIH Website at http://familydoctor.org/278.xml#2

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