Stress 5/13

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Stress is a feeling of strain or pressure. Positive stress can be beneficial because it helps you focus and have more energy, resulting in a better performance. However, chronic stress is the response to emotional pressure suffered for a prolonged period of time in which an individual perceives he or she has little or no control. Chronic stress can affect the size of your brain, it's structure, and how it functions. When your body detects a stressful situation, your Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis is instantly activated and releases a hormone called cortisol. High levels of cortisol over long periods of time can lead to negative affects. For example, electric signals in your hippocampus deteriorate and your hippocampus also inhibits the activity of your HPA axis, weakening your ability to control your stress.  Too much of the cortisol results in the loss of synaptic connections between neurons. In addition, cortisol can literally make your brain shrink in size and the shrinking of your prefrontal cortex, leads to fewer new brain cells being made in the hippocampus. This means that chronic stress can make it more challenging/difficult to learn and remember things. Finally, chronic stress prompts your brain for future psychological diseases. These serious mental problems include depression and eventually Alzheimer's. 

S&EP - SP2: Developing and using models

I constructed a mental or conceptual model to represent and understand phenomena when my end of year project group and I created an infographic to represent and understand multiple ways of how chronic stress can affect the brain. After studying this unit for a few days by watching videos, reading articles, and answering questions about this topic, we were assigned to craft an infographic to explain to others how traumatic events, such as natural disasters, impact the mind/brain. In addition, we had to include at least three coping strategies to deal with that stress. I used a model to explain and predict behaviors of systems, as my group and I created an infographic on Google Draw that predicts the behavior of the brain and how it functions under long periods of chronic stress. I refined/rebuild my model as I learned about more and more ways that chronic stress and high levels of cortisol can wreak havoc on the brain. Upon learning more about these negative affects, I had to move images and text around to make space to provide more information.