When we have to acquire new knowledge under stress, our brain deploys unconscious rather than conscious learning processes; the new study has revealed the facts. The neuroscientists have discovered that this switch from conscious to unconscious learning systems is triggered by the intact function of mineral corticoid receptors.
According to scientists at the Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, receptors are activated by hormones released in response to stress by the adrenal cortex.
The team from Bochum has examined 80 subjects, 50 percent of whom were given a drug blocking mineralocorticoid receptors in the brain. The remaining participants took a placebo drug.
Twenty participants from each group were subjected to a stress-inducing experience.
Subsequently, all participants underwent a learning test, the so-called weather prediction task. The subjects were shown playing cards with different symbols and had to learn which combinations of cards meant rain and which meant sunshine. The researchers used MRI to record the respective brain activity.
It has been said that there are two different approaches to master the weather prediction test: some subjects tried consciously to formulate a rule that would enable them to predict sunshine and rain.
Others learned unconsciously to give the right answer, following their gut feeling, as it were.
Scientist team of Lars Schwabe demonstrated in August 2012 that, under stress, the brain prefers unconscious to conscious learning.
"This switch to another memory system happens automatically," PD Dr Lars Schwabe from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said.
"It makes sense for the organism to react in this manner. Thus, learning efficiency can be maintained even under stress," the researcher said.
(With inputs from ANI)
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