Brief Stress Makes You Smarter

Ever wonder why you‘re so damn smart? It’s because you’re stressed, sometimes, and not too much. That’s the suggestion of researchers at UC Berkeley, who found that “significant, but brief stressful events caused stem cells in brains to proliferate into new nerve cells that, when mature two weeks later, improved mental performance.” Full disclosure: the research was conduced on rats, not humans, but as they write in a UC Berkeley news release, the findings “reinforce the notion that stress hormones help an animal adapt – after all, remembering the place where something stressful happened is beneficial to deal with future situations in the same place.” The researchers take care to remind readers that while brief periods of stress can make you smarter, chronic stress is usually bad for your health. Read the study here.