In a new study researchers have found that stress can enhance ordinary, unrelated memories. This may open up new avenues in management of patients of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related afflictions say experts.
The research team from Czech Republic's Academy of Sciences, the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, and Rockefeller University used lab rats to prove this theory. André Fenton, the study's lead author said, “Our results show that stress can activate memory, even if that memory is unrelated to the stressful experience.”
For the experiments the rats learned to make distinctions between left and right in a T-shaped maze. One day later, the researchers induced stress in the rats through a commonly practiced technique—placing them in a bucket of water in which they had to swim to prevent drowning.
Another group of rats were placed in shallow water, where swimming was not necessary. Subsequent to this procedure, the rats were again tasked with navigating the maze. The stressed group of rats from the former group showed better memory for which way to turn in the T-maze than those placed in shallow water.
The results appeared in the journal PLoS Biology.
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