You have spent weeks studying for a crucial exam. You watch nervously as your teacher hands it out on the big day. You are halfway through when you are asked to define the term “equanimity.” Your memory goes blank even though you know you have seen it before. So, what exactly happened?

The complicated link between stress and memory holds the key to the solution. There are many various types and degrees of stress, as well as different forms of memory, but we will focus on how short-term stress affects your fact memory.

Facts that you read, hear, or study create memories through a three-step process. The first step is acquisition, which occurs when you come across a new piece of knowledge. Each sensory experience engages a different set of neural pathways in the brain. These sensory impressions must be consolidated by the hippocampus, which is impacted by the amygdala, which focuses experiences connected with powerful emotions, in order to create enduring memories. The hippocampus then encodes memories, most likely by fortifying synaptic connections that were triggered during the sensory event. A memory can be remembered or retrieved once it has been encoded. Memories are stored all over the brain, and the prefrontal cortex is most likely the place where they are retrieved.

Moderate stress can actually help experiences enter your memory in the first two stages. When your brain is exposed to stressful stimuli, it releases corticosteroids, which activate a threat-detection and threat-response process in the amygdala. Your hippocampus is prompted by the amygdala to consolidate the stressful experience into a memory. Meanwhile, the stress-induced surge of corticosteroids stimulates your hippocampus, causing memory consolidation. However, while a little stress can be beneficial, persistent and intense stress can have the opposite impact. A prolonged period of sustained corticosteroids, which are produced as a result of chronic stress, can damage the hippocampus and impair your ability to establish new memories.

It would be ideal if stress helped us remember facts, but the opposite is true. The prefrontal cortex, which controls thought, attention, and reasoning, is involved in remembering. The amygdala suppresses or reduces the activity of the prefrontal cortex when corticosteroids stimulate it. The rationale for this inhibition is so that in a threatening circumstance, the fight/flight/freeze reaction can override slower, more reasoned cognition. However, this can have the unintended consequence of causing your mind to go blank during an exam. The act of trying to remember can then become a stressor in and of itself, leading to a vicious cycle of increased cortisol release and a lower chance of remembering.

So, how can you use stress to your advantage and remain calm and collected when it counts?

First, if you know a stressful occasion, such as a test, is approaching, consider practising in a similar stressful environment. Novelty can be a source of anxiety. Completing practice questions under time constraints or while seated at a desk rather than on a couch can make your stress reaction less responsive throughout the test. Another excellent tool is exercise. Increasing your heart and breathing rate is linked to chemical changes in your brain that help you feel better and lessen anxiety. Regular exercise is also known to enhance sleep patterns, which might be beneficial the night before a test. To combat your body’s flight/fight/freeze response on exam day, try taking deep breaths. So, the next time your mind goes blank at a crucial moment, take a few deep breaths until you remember the meaning of equanimity.