Following up
Exposure to stress puts brain on high alert
Story by Karen Thomas/Photo by Trudie Lee
“We know that the brain is responsible for your response to stress. We also know that, once you’re exposed to stress, you’re primed to respond more to other stresses. What is particularly vexing as a scientist is trying to understand how the brain does this,” says Dr. Jaideep Bains. “That is how your brain is supposed to work. The dilemma is, when people are exposed to chronic stress, their brain is permanently primed to go into overdrive.”
Following up on research that identified the specific mechanism in the brain that switches on the stress command centre, Dr. Bains and his colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary have discovered a mechanism that primes the cells to be on “standby” for any new stresses. This research was recently published in the prestigious international journal Nature Neuroscience.
“If you are consistently exposed to stress at work or in your personal life, your brain stays stuck in hypervigilant mode,” says Dr. Bains. “Understanding stress at the level of the brain cells is vital because stress is a complex chain reaction. Currently, there are very few treatments for stress, and many of the ones currently available target symptoms often associated with stress such as depression, fatigue, and memory loss.”
Dr. Bains and his team have discovered that stress signals arriving in the brain leave a molecular imprint on the brain cells that lasts about a week. Those imprinted cells then respond more strongly to signals of stress from the rest of the brain.
“It is essential that our brain is able to respond quickly to stress, release hormones, and activate the fight-or-flight response—this is a fundamental survival mechanism,” says Dr. Bains. “In today’s world of conflicting priorities, we may need to protect the brain against overreacting to chronic stress. Building on these findings, we could potentially uncover new therapeutic targets to soothe the brain’s stress centre by turning off the tap to the stress reaction.”