Rule 8: Stressed Brains Don’t Learn the Same Way (Brain Rules)

A German shepherd was receiving painful electric shocks. The dog can easily get out since the other side of the box he was in was insulated from shocks – a low barrier separates the two sides. Instead, he lies down in the corner of the electric side, whimpering with each jolt. He was physically removed to be relieved of the experience.

Days before, he was restrained, and receiving a continuous flow of shocks. At first, he reacted, howled in pain, and urinated. Since the pain did not cease, the dog gave up. Even after the dog was released from the harness it was restrained to, he could not understand his options.

This was a series of experiments in the 1960’s by psychologist Martin Seligman. He invented the term “learned helplessness” to describe the perception of inescapability and the cognitive collapse that follows it. Animal and humans converged to the same kinds of behavior.

Some kinds of stress boosts learning, but other types are very detrimental to it. Jumping out of an airplane is not inherently stressful, some enjoy it and others cringe at the thought of it.

The brain is the world’s most sophisticated survival organ, and its complexities serve a selfish goal that is somewhat erotic, to live long enough to pass our genes to the next generation. Stress helps us defend ourselves from threats that can stand in the way from this goal.

Tigers either killed us, or we managed to escape. Our stress responses were designed to last for seconds, not years – they were designed to spur our muscles into rapid action.

It’s not just that stress can hurt our brains, it can also hurt our cardiovascular performance. They ruin blood vessels and clog up arteries – this increases the chance of heart attack.

Chronic stress disrupts the immune system’s proper functioning, causing it to fight indiscriminately. People with chronic stress are sick a lot more often (three times more likely to suffer from the common cold). They are also more likely to suffer from asthma and diabetes.

Prolonged stress harms learning. Stressed people are bad at path and do not process language very efficiently, and they have a lower ability to concentrate. Studies showed that adults with high levels of stress did 50 percent worse on cognitive tests than adults with low stress. Stress hormones can disconnect neural networks, destroying memories in the process.

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Related posts:

1. Rule 9: Assume that the Person You Are Listening to Might Know Something You Don’t(12 RFL)
2. Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation (48LOP)
3. Law 46: Never Appear too Perfect (The 48 Laws of Power)
4. Chapter 3: The Recasting of Some Basic Psychoanalytical Ideas (The Denial of Death)