Mind distortion - Stress, Depression and Intelligence
Stress and depression are two common outcome of the modern-day life. As many believe, they are the result of the unending tussle for a better living that most of us have dedicated ourselves into. More or less, everyone at one point or another in life has to become a victim of one of the two.
While ‘stress’ can stem from something as hard as social anxiety to something as dull as tripping over your own shoelaces, the latter, depression is a phase that all most all individuals end up facing during the span of their life. What ever be the length and magnitude, these two problems pose huge threats to ones physical and mental health. Several new studies explain the spiteful side effects that these mental states of being have on ones intelligence.
Brain cells continue to supplement our needs of better functioning
Latest findings establish that human brain continues to produce neurons and other critical brain cells during the later parts of the life too. To be specific, it was found that that brain regenerates the essential cells on an as-needed basis - to suit the requirements of the individual. This is in direct opposition to long-held medical principle that human brain cells do not regenerate after a definite point and instead begin to enter a state of slow decay. New reports also show that the primal areas of the brain are able to regenerate lost cells. This has successive effects on a wide range of mental functions, reaction time, including memory and comprehension. Now, what does this have to do with stress and depression, you ask?
A whole lot, it seems. The two circumstances above put the more primitive parts of the brain into “survival mode.” Upon entering that state, the brain naturally attempts to reduce anything that could be seen as dizzy or unnecessary, instead focusing all energies on the basics. With apparent decline in brain activity during periods where a person is facing either or both of the aforesaid problems, the brain stops generating newer cells. It is seen that the brain cells starts to die out slowly when subjected to excessive stress and depression. This explains why some normally intelligent people appear to be mentally slower and less adept when put under emotional and psychological pressure.
Further into the study it was seen that ‘trophic factors’ or the chemicals that are known to rouse the brain, are not produced suitably when a person undergoes a prolonged period of stress and depression. If the chemical (trophic factors) flow is cut-off, the result can be a fast decline in the human brains capability to restore itself over time.
Although these findings are contentious and doubtful, they don’t remain from offering an insight into how the brain works on a physical level. The long-held belief that the mind is incapable of fixing itself once a person reaches adulthood may just be put into question. While further investigations are on due course for evaluation of these studies, several new avenues for alternatives beliefs do open up. For example, there are studies now being conducted devoted to find out whether or not ‘serotonin’, a chemical used to combat a variety of mental disorders, has an effect on neuron regeneration.
Better understanding would emancipate human being from false beliefs and better measures to counteract a negative physical state of being, of course.
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