Brain Rules Chapter 8: Stressed brains don't learn the same way

 Stressed brains don't learn the same way

Your body's defense system -- the release of adrenaline and cortisol -- is built for an immediate response to a serious but passing danger, such as a sabre-toothed tiger. Chronic stress, such as hostility at home, dangerously deregulates a system built only to deal with a short-term responses.

Under chronic stress, adrenaline creates scars in your blood vessels that can cause a heart attack or stroke, and cortisol damages the cells of the hippocampus, crippling your ability to learn and remember.

Individually, the worst kind of stress is the feeling that you have no control over the problem -- you are helpless.

Emotional stress has huge impacts across society, on children's ability to learn in school and on employees' productivity at work.

Saduran dari: Medina, John. 2008. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Rule #8).