您花了数周时间学习一项重要的考试。在重要的一天，您会在老师分发时紧张地等待。当您被要求定义“自闭症”时，您正在自己的过程中。您知道您曾经看过这个词，但是头脑一片空白。刚才发生了什么？伊丽莎白·考克斯详细介绍了压力与记忆之间的复杂关系。
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You spend weeks studying for an important test.你花了几周的时间为一个重要的考试学习。 On the big day, you wait nervously as your teacher hands it out.在那一天你紧张地等着老师分发试卷。 You're working your way through, when you're asked to define 'ataraxia’.当你被要求定义 '心平气和'时，你正努力的答题。 You know you've seen it before, but your mind goes blank.你知道你之前见过这个词，但是你的大脑一片空白。 What just happened? The answer lies in the complex relationship between stress and memory.刚刚发生了什么？答案在于压力和记忆之间的复杂关系。 There are many types and degrees of stress and different kinds of memory, but we're going to focus on how short-term stress impacts your memory for facts.压力有多种类型和程度，记忆也分很多种，但我们要研究的是短期压力如何影响你对事实的记忆。 To start, it helps to understand how this kind of memory works.首先，理解记忆是如何工作的，这一点很有感帮助。 Facts you read, hear, or study become memories through a process with three main steps.你所读到的听到的或学习的事实通过三个主要的过程成为记忆。 First comes acquisition: the moment you encounter a new piece of information.首先是获取：当你遇到一个新的信息。 Each sensory experience activates a unique set of brain areas.每一种感官体验都会激活一组独特的大脑区域。 In order to become lasting memories, these sensory experiences have to be consolidated by the hippocampus,为了形成长期记忆，这些感官体验必须由海马体巩固， influenced by the amygdala, which emphasizes experiences associated with strong emotions.受杏仁核影响，强调与强烈情感相关的经历。 The hippocampus then encodes memories, probably by strengthening the synaptic connections stimulated during the original sensory experience.海马体对记忆进行编码，这可能是通过加强在最初的感觉体验中刺激的突触连接来实现的。 Once a memory has been encoded, it can be remembered, or retrieved, later.一旦记忆被编码，它可以被记住也可以在以后用于检索。 Memories are stored all over the brain, and it's likely the prefrontal cortex that signals for their retrieval.记忆储存在大脑里，由前额叶皮质发出用于检索的信号。 So how does stress affect each of these stages?那么压力如何影响这些阶段的？ In the first two stages, moderate stress can actually help experiences enter your memory.在前两个阶段适度的压力实际上可以帮助经历进入你的记忆。 Your brain responds to stressful stimuli by releasing hormones known as corticosteroids,你的大脑通过释放一种叫做皮质类固醇的激素来应对压力的刺激， which activate a process of threat-detection and threat-response in the amygdala.这会激活杏仁核中威胁检测和威胁响应的过程。 The amygdala prompts your hippocampus to consolidate the stress-inducing experience into a memory.杏仁核会促使你的海马体将压力引导的体验巩固为记忆。 Meanwhile, the flood of corticosteroids from stress stimulates your hippocampus, also prompting memory consolidation.同时，压力导致皮质类固醇大量分泌刺激你的海马体，也促进了记忆的巩固。 But even though some stress can be helpful, extreme and chronic stress can have the opposite effect.但即使有些压力可能会有所帮助，极端和长期压力却会产生相反的效果。 Researchers have tested this by injecting rats directly with stress hormones.研究人员通过直接向老鼠注射应激激素来测试这一点。 As they gradually increased the dose of corticosteroids, the rats performance on memory tests increased at first, but dropped off at higher doses.当他们逐渐增加皮质类固醇的剂量时，老鼠的对记忆力测试表现起初增加，但在较高剂量时下降。 In humans, we see a similar positive effect with moderate stress.在人身上我们发现适度压力也有类似的积极作用。 But that only appears when the stress is related to the memory task, so while time pressure might help you memorize a list having a friend scare you will not.但只有当压力与记忆任务相关时才会出现，所以，虽然时间压力可能帮助你记住一个列表，但如果有一个朋友吓到你就无法记住了。 And the weeks, months, or even years of sustained corticosteroids that result from chronic stress can damage the hippocampus and decrease your ability to form new memories.而由长期压力导致的持续数周数月甚至数年的皮质类固醇，甚至会损害你的海马体并降低你形成新记忆的能力。 It would be nice if some stress also helped us remember facts but unfortunately, the opposite is true.如果一些压力也帮助我们记忆，那将是很好的，但不幸的是，情况恰恰相反。 The act of remembering relies on the prefrontal cortex, which governs thought, attention, and reasoning.记忆的行为依赖于前额皮质，它控制着思维、注意力和推理。 When corticosteroids stimulate the amygdala, the amygdala inhibits, or lessens the activity of, the prefrontal cortex.当皮质类固醇刺激杏仁核时，杏仁核抑制或减弱前额皮质的活动。 The reason for this inhibition is so the fight/flight/freeze response can overrule slower, more reasoned thought in a dangerous situation.这种抑制的原因就是在危险的情况下战斗/逃跑/冻住反应会推翻更慢更理性的思维。 But that can also have the unfortunate effect of making your mind go blank during a test.但这也可能产生不幸的影响让你在考试时大脑一片空白。 And then the act of trying to remember can itself be a stressor, leading to a vicious cycle of more corticosteroid release and an even smaller chance of remembering.然后努力回忆的行为本身就是一个压力源，它会导致更多皮质类固醇释放的恶性循环以及更小的记起的机会。 So what can you do to turn stress to your advantage and stay calm and collected when it matters the most?那么你如何才能将压力转化为你的优势并在最重要的时候保持冷静和镇定？ First if you know a stressful situation like a test is coming, try preparing in conditions similar to the stressful environment.首先，如果你知道有压力的情况将要发生，比如考试，试着在与压力环境相似的环境中准备。 Novelty can be a stressor. Completing practice questions under time pressure, or seated at a desk rather than on a couch,新奇感可能是压力源。在时间压力下完成练习题，或者坐在书桌前而不是沙发上， can make your stress response to these circumstances less sensitive during the test itself.可以让你对这些情况的压力反应在测试过程中变得不那么敏感。
Exercise is another useful tool.锻炼是另一个有用的工具。
Increasing your heart and breathing rate is linked to chemical changes in your brain that help reduce anxiety and increase your sense of well-being.它们与大脑中的化学变化有关，能增加你的心跳和呼吸频率，这有助于减少焦虑，增加你的幸福感。 Regular exercise is also widely thought to improve sleeping patterns, which comes in handy the night before a test.经常锻炼也被广泛认为可以改善睡眠模式，这在考试前一天晚上就派上用场了。 And on the actual test day, try taking deep breaths to counteract your body's flight/fight/freeze response.在实际考试当天，尝试深呼吸，以抵消你身体的战斗/逃跑/冻住反应。 Deep breathing exercises have shown measurable reduction in test anxiety in groups ranging from third graders to nursing students.在三年级学生到护理学生的小组中，深呼吸练习已经显示出对考试焦虑的明显降低。 So the next time you find your mind going blank at a critical moment, take a few deep breaths until you remember ataraxia: a state of calmness, free from anxiety.所以下次当你在关键时刻发现大脑一片空白时，做几次深呼吸，直到你想起心平气和：一种没有焦虑的平静状态。 Check out these videos to learn how stress affects your brain and your body.观看这些视频，了解一下压力如何影响你的大脑和身体。