People who are stressed out have a harder time orienting themselves. A new study used neuroimaging to reveal why this happens.
A new study investigated the effect of the stress hormone cortisol on spatial orientation abilities.The stress hormone cortisol impaired the brain's navigation system. Getting lost in an unfamiliar environment, such as when exploring an unknown town in a foreign country while on vacation, can be a highlyexperience.
What had been largely unknown, though, is whether the reverse is also true—that is, whether being stressed also has negative effects on people’s spatial navigation skills. For example, are people worse at finding their way back to a location in an unfamiliar environment when they are stressed as compared to when they are calm?Akan and co-workers, 2026 ). For the study,"Cortisol treatment impairs path integration and alters grid-like representations in the male human entorhinal cortex”, first author Osman Akan of the Department of Cognitive Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany and his co-authors used an intricate experimental design to study the effects of stress on navigation abilities. Overall, the scientists tested 40 German volunteers. Each volunteer was invited twice to the lab. On one day, they were given pills containing the stress hormone cortisol, and on the other day, identical-lookingin an MRI scanner as their brain function was assessed. In the virtual task, participants had to move to a virtual basket first and then to several trees, until they found a tree that contained a virtual red apple. Once they found a red apple, they were instructed to find the shortest possible way back to the basket. The volunteers performed two versions of this task, one without any helpful cues and one in which a virtual lighthouse helped them a bit in orienting themselves.When comparing the data from the cortisol and the placebo condition, the researchers found a clear result pattern: The stress hormone made the volunteers perform much worse in finding their way in the apple task than the placebo. This was true for both the condition with a virtual lighthouse present and the condition without any orienting help. The neuroimaging data also revealed interesting insights. In the placebo condition, the brain behaved like it normally would in a navigation task. In this condition, the entorhinal cortex in the right half of the brain showed so-called grid-like representations. The entorhinal cortex is a brain area that plays a central role in spatial navigation and. It is a part of the brain’s cortex that is located close to the hippocampus, a brain area critical for many forms of memory, and acts as a sort of interface between the hippocampus and the rest of the brain. Importantly, the entorhinal cortex has many receptors for cortisol, making it a prime target for stress effects in the brain. Grid-like representations reflect the activity of so-called grid cells, a type of nerve cell in the entorhinal cortex that constitutes a positioning system in the brain. Basically, the activity of these types of nerve cells encodes apresentation of space similar to a map, which helps the person to orient. Importantly, the grid-like representations in the brain were diminished in the cortisol condition. Thus, stress makes the brain unable to use its internal navigation system properly.Taken together, the results of the study showed that the stress hormone cortisol impairs the brain’s navigation ability. So the next time you explore a new town, make sure you are properly relaxed and not under stress to minimize your chances of getting lost. Akan, O., Chandreswaran, V., Soldan, H. D., Bierbrauer, A., Axmacher, N., Wolf, O. T., & Merz, C. J. . Cortisol treatment impairs path integration and alters grid-like representations in the male human entorhinal cortex.Sebastian Ocklenburg, Ph.D., is a professor for research methods in psychology at the Department of Psychology at MSH Medical School in Hamburg, Germany. His research focuses on left-handedness and brain asymmetries.Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
TSA Lines Are Getting Worse—Here's How People Are Skipping ThemTSA lines are growing amid a shutdown, but travelers say TSA PreCheck Touchless ID helps them skip waits.
Read more »
Lonely People Are Better Off Texting Strangers Than Messaging a Chatbot, Study FindsThere's a whole IRL world out there looking to make a friend.
Read more »
4 killed, including child, in New York fire that forced people to jump from buildingFour people were killed, including a 3-year-old boy, when a fast-moving fire tore through a building in Queens on Monday afternoon, according to officials.
Read more »
Rising temperatures could make millions of people more sedentary, new study findsNew research suggests rising global temperatures are likely to contribute to a decrease in physical activity.
Read more »
Excessive Smartphone Use Linked to Disordered Eating in Young People, Study FindsA comprehensive review from King's College London reveals a concerning connection between excessive smartphone use and the development of disordered eating habits and body dissatisfaction, particularly in young people. The study, involving over 52,000 participants, highlights the potential for digital devices to negatively impact body image and eating behaviors during the crucial adolescent years.
Read more »
About 19 million people in the US have thought about shooting someone in their lifetime: StudyA recent study found about 19 million U.S. adults have seriously thought about shooting someone, including roughly 8.7 million in the past year.
Read more »