Here is the full transcript of Nicole Byers’ talk titled “How Stress Drains Your Brain — and What To Do About It” at TED conference.
In this TED talk, neuropsychologist Nicole Byers delves into the impact of stress on memory and cognitive function. She explains that daily stressors, coupled with the enormous number of thoughts we process daily, can significantly affect our ability to recall information and multitask effectively. Byers highlights a study revealing that interruptions and multitasking increase stress and reduce efficiency.
She also discusses the different ways stress impacts memory retrieval and problem-solving abilities, emphasizing that even minor day-to-day pressures can overload our cognitive resources. Drawing on personal anecdotes, Byers illustrates how stress can lead to forgetfulness, like misplacing keys or forgetting passwords. She advises against trying to force memory recall, as this can further inhibit cognitive function due to competitive inhibition of neurons.
Finally, Byers suggests practical strategies for mental resets, such as engaging in different activities or taking breaks, to alleviate stress and improve memory performance.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Memory and the Modern World
I came home from vacation recently, jet-lagged, tired, after delayed flights and a lost bag, with my cranky preschooler and my husband trudging behind me, and I forgot the code to my front door. We’ve lived in this house for seven years. I’d put the code in the door hundreds of times before. And as I stood there, staring at the keypad, I thought, “Oh boy, I’m finally losing my mind.”
Our brains have an incredible capacity to store memory, but not all of that information is accessible at once. An article in “Scientific American” estimates the human brain can store 2.5 million gigabytes of data. That’s about 5,000 iPhones. But if you’ve ever forgotten a password before, you know that memory is not always easy to access because memory is not just one system.
The Intricacies of Memory
Those different systems have limits, and a number of factors in our daily lives can impact our memory efficiency. There was a famous neuropsychology case study of a patient referred to as patient HM, who became like a real-life Ten-Second Tom after brain surgery to treat a seizure disorder. In terms of his seizures, the surgery was a success. They were less severe and less frequent. But after his surgery, HM became unable to consciously learn new things.
For example, he worked with the same neuropsychologist for years. He never remembered meeting her; he’d introduce himself each time. And he never remembered doing the different tasks that she would bring to test his memory.
But here’s the interesting part. His performance got better on some of those tasks over time. He never remembered doing them. He always thought he was doing them for the first time. But his brain had learned the procedures without him being aware.
Different Types of Memory
We learned from patient HM and others like him that there are different types of memory. Some memories come to mind almost automatically. Like if you’re walking through a garden and you smell the flowers that your grandma used to keep on her kitchen table, and all of a sudden, you’re thinking of your favorite memory with your grandma. But other memories take more brainpower and effort to recall. Like trying to remember my new computer password.
Because some memories take more brainpower and effort to recall, they’re also more prone to interference. You’re at the grocery store, and you’re trying to remember 10 things that you need to pick up. But you run into your neighbor in the produce section, and after a few minutes of chit chat, hearing about their new car, you can only remember two of those 10 things.
Even though our memory storage is pretty impressive — 5,000 iPhones big — the short-term memory that you’re using to keep track of your grocery list is more like seven, plus or minus two, bits of information.
The Challenge of Distraction
And it’s really easy to throw that active short-term memory off track. The problem? We live in a very distracting modern world. You’re at a meeting at work, and you’re trying to remember all the details of a project that you’re working on so that you can share it with your team.
But at the same time, your brain is paying attention to what your colleagues are saying, trying to ignore all the email alerts popping up on your computer, distracted by text messages from your family asking what’s for dinner, and wondering if they’re going to take a break soon because you could really use some more coffee.
Ignoring all those distractions and competing priorities takes up a lot of energy. When our brains are juggling 400 things, we’re more likely to make a memory error, like forgetting a colleague’s name in a meeting or missing a key part of your presentation, and then beating yourself up for the rest of the day for making that mistake. Which brings us to another brain-draining habit that can mess up your memory and make it hard to remember where you left your keys: stress.
The Impact of Stress on Memory
Doesn’t have to be huge or major stressors, either. All those day-to-day stresses, pressures and deadlines take up brain space, too, and force our brain to do a bunch of mental multitasking. Last summer, I locked myself in a stairwell twice in the same week because I was trying to do this mental multitasking.
I was packing up at the end of the day, and at the same time, I was thinking about phone calls I needed to make tomorrow, ideas for a project that I was working on, and what I was going to make for supper that night. I was also wondering whether I should pick up my daughter before or after I get groceries. And I left my keys in my office. Twice in the same week.