Chronic stress can impair memory, according to research on mice.
Dr. Joyce Yau and colleagues at the University of Edinburghs Center of Cardiovascular Science found that aging mice with high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, were less able to navigate a maze.
Dr. Yau showed how two receptors react to cortisol and the first one helps with memory but when the hormone levels got too high, they spilled over into the second receptor, which causes memory impairment.
Researchers are investigating an enzyme (11beta-HSD1), which produces stress hormones, to create a drug to slow the normal aging of memory or even improve it.
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