How to learn successfully even under stress
Predicting the weather under stress
The
team from Bochum has examined 80 subjects, 50 per cent of whom were
given a drug blocking mineralocorticoid receptors in the brain. The
remaining participants took a placebo drug. Twenty participants from
each group were subjected to a stress-inducing experience. Subsequently,
all participants underwent a learning test, the so-called weather
prediction task. The subjects were shown playing cards with different
symbols and had to learn which combinations of cards meant rain and
which meant sunshine. The researchers used MRI to record the respective
brain activity.
Learning unconsciously or consciously
There
are two different approaches to master the weather prediction test:
some subjects tried consciously to formulate a rule that would enable
them to predict sunshine and rain. Others learned unconsciously to give
the right answer, following their gut feeling, as it were. The team of
Lars Schwabe demonstrated in August 2012
that, under stress, the brain prefers unconscious to conscious
learning. “This switch to another memory system happens automatically,”
says Lars Schwabe. “It makes sense for the organism to react in this
manner. Thus, learning efficiency can be maintained even under stress.”
However, this works only with fully functional mineralocorticoid
receptors. Once the researchers blocked these receptors by applying the
drug Spironolactone, the participants switched over to the unconscious
strategy less frequently, thus demonstrating a poorer learning
efficiency.
Effects also visible in brain activity
These
effects also became evident in MRI data. Usually, stress causes the
brain activity to shift from the hippocampus – a structure for conscious
learning – to the dorsal striatum, which manages unconscious learning.
However, this stress-induced switch took place only in the placebo
group, not in subjects who had been given the mineralocorticoid receptor
blocker. Consequently, the mineralocorticoid receptors play a crucial
role in enabling the brain to adapt to stressful situations.
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