Why you might remember the things you do wrong more than the things you do right?
Written by Andrea Martinez Vera
Edited by Cindy Ho
January 5, 2023
Edited by Cindy Ho
January 5, 2023
Many studies have found a relationship between stress and recalling emotional memories. Why might this be? These studies found that memories can be connected to both positive and negative emotional triggers. Emotional memories can be both negative like walking by a barking dog and positive like watching your favorite movie. Apart from emotional memories, neutral memories can also be made by triggers that do not enact an emotion, such as being asked to remember a phone number.
Researchers from MIT examined whether making someone stressed before being given information affects their ability to remember that data 24 hours later. Participants who were exposed to acute stress were part of the stress group, and those that did not get exposed to stress were the control group. In short, 24 hours after being shown negative, positive, and neutral-toned photos, participants were asked to recall and select them from a collection of images. They found that both groups were able to remember the photos equally well. However, the difference between these two groups was the changes in the neural context of the brain which correlated with remembering more emotional photos.
The control group with no stress exposure had high theta brain activity in their subsequent memory performance. High theta brain wave activity is associated with behavioral states of alertness and working memory. Having high theta brain activity is expected because the task of remembering photos is a low-stake assignment, so participants would not feel pressured to do exceptionally well on tasks like these. Thus, their brains passively remembered the photos shown to them unselectively. As a result, the no-stress group remembered both emotional and neutral photos equally well. On the other hand, the stress group had high-gamma brain wave activity correlated to performing well in remembering negative photos. High-gamma brain waves are the fastest brain waves produced in the brain and are often associated with intense levels of focus and problem-solving. Stress selectively tuned the neural context of their brain to remember more negative emotion-inducing photos.
Overall, this study explored whether exposure to stress will help with memory recall. It turns out that both the stress-exposed and no-stress groups performed the same in remembering photos. However, the stress-exposed group found their neural context altered with high gamma activity where new memories favor the recalling of negative emotional information. Thus, even acute stress can impact how memories are recalled. All in all, being exposed to stress helps with memory recall of negative triggers, but the relationship between stress and memory formation is still very understudied.
Researchers from MIT examined whether making someone stressed before being given information affects their ability to remember that data 24 hours later. Participants who were exposed to acute stress were part of the stress group, and those that did not get exposed to stress were the control group. In short, 24 hours after being shown negative, positive, and neutral-toned photos, participants were asked to recall and select them from a collection of images. They found that both groups were able to remember the photos equally well. However, the difference between these two groups was the changes in the neural context of the brain which correlated with remembering more emotional photos.
The control group with no stress exposure had high theta brain activity in their subsequent memory performance. High theta brain wave activity is associated with behavioral states of alertness and working memory. Having high theta brain activity is expected because the task of remembering photos is a low-stake assignment, so participants would not feel pressured to do exceptionally well on tasks like these. Thus, their brains passively remembered the photos shown to them unselectively. As a result, the no-stress group remembered both emotional and neutral photos equally well. On the other hand, the stress group had high-gamma brain wave activity correlated to performing well in remembering negative photos. High-gamma brain waves are the fastest brain waves produced in the brain and are often associated with intense levels of focus and problem-solving. Stress selectively tuned the neural context of their brain to remember more negative emotion-inducing photos.
Overall, this study explored whether exposure to stress will help with memory recall. It turns out that both the stress-exposed and no-stress groups performed the same in remembering photos. However, the stress-exposed group found their neural context altered with high gamma activity where new memories favor the recalling of negative emotional information. Thus, even acute stress can impact how memories are recalled. All in all, being exposed to stress helps with memory recall of negative triggers, but the relationship between stress and memory formation is still very understudied.