Impact of a Stressful Environment on Cognitive and

Emotional Development

Feelings Gate to the Cortex

Stress

Types of Stress

Two types of Stress Eustress is positive

stress Distress is a

negative stress

Eustress Opens the Gate

Neural pathways run from the eyes, ears and other sense organs to a central clearing house deep in the brain called the thalamus

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh60EVl27kM

Thalamus is like a gate to pathways that run to the cortex--it is activated by how we feel about the information being processed by the limbic system

Eustress

When we experience a positive emotion, are actively engaged or appropriately challenged (retaining a sense of control) we experience eustress.

The thalamus “opens the gate” to the cortex where higher level thinking takes place

Referred to as upshifting

Distress Closes the Gate

When a threat is perceived we experience distress

The thalamus quickly sends a message to the amygdala that there might be danger

Amygdala is poised something like an alarm company

The alarm activates a cascade of chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) involved in the stress response: freeze-flight-fight.

Distress closes the gate to the main road to the cortex an the brain downshifts to the lower survival brain

Modulating the Stress Response

At the same time, another slower pathway moves up to the cortex - like a detour route

We can now access the prefrontal lobes to modulate our emotional reactions

This help us make a rational decision about how to respond to an emotional trigger

Emotional Hi-Jacking

Some emotional reactions bypass the cortex and can be formed without any conscious, cognitive participation at all

Degree of control we perceive we have over the threatening situation determines whether a high-jacking will take place.

Distressing Emotions Disrupt Thinking and Learning Often when we are emotionally upset, “we

just can’t think straight” Distress shifts the focus from the higher

thinking cortex to the more primitive survival brain

Distress interferes with working memory in the prefrontal lobes - emotional control takes precedence

Continual emotional distress can create deficits in a child’s intellectual abilities, crippling the capacity to learn

Types of Distress

Pressure Childhood anxieties

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