Expressive writing can prepare the brain to effectively tackle stressful situations, study says

A new study conducted at the Michigan State University, USA found that expressive writing might help a person to perform efficiently in an upcoming stressful task.

The study that evaluated the brain activity of the participants is the first to provide neural evidence for the benefits of expressive writing.     

Hans Schroder, the lead author and an MSU doctoral student in psychology and a clinical intern at Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital said: "Worrying takes up cognitive resources; it's kind of like people who struggle with worry are constantly multitasking -- they are doing one task and trying to monitor and suppress their worries at the same time".

According to Schroder, the findings indicate that if one gets those worries out of the head through expressive writing, the cognitive resources are freed up and thus, it helps in completing the tasks more efficiently.

In the study, college students who were identified to have chronic anxiety in a validated screening measure were asked to complete a computer-based "flanker task".  Through this task, the response accuracy and reaction times of the participants were accessed.

Prior to this, nearly 50% of the participants were made to write for 8 minutes about their deepest feelings and thoughts on the forthcoming task. In the control condition, the remaining 50% participants were made to write on what they did on the previous day.

Even though, the speed and accuracy of both the groups were at the same level, the flanker task was completed by the expressive writing group more efficiently. This indicated their limited use of brain resources, which was measured via electroencephalography (EEG).

Previous studies have proven that expressive writing can aid individuals in past traumas and stressful events, while the present study confirms the positive effects of the same technique in preparing for future tasks.