The fact of cognitive decline due to stress in animals was already known to science.. New research has shown that a similar relationship exists in humans.

Scientists have found that stress in adulthood can shrink the brain and help reduce intellectual abilities, writes the journal Neurology..

The authors of the study, biologists at the University of Texas, found that people who experience frequent stresses suffer from reduced intelligence functions — in particular, memory impairment.. Especially significantly it affects the elderly, experts said.

Scientists conducted an experiment involving 2,231 people aged (on average) 48 years. This experiment showed that a decrease in intelligence correlates with the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in the human body..

In particular, during the study, volunteers measured daily blood levels of cortisol, after which participants took tests for memory and abstract thinking. It turned out that people who had the highest level of stress hormone in their bodies showed the worst results in tests for intellectual abilities.

In particular, magnetic resonance imaging allowed scientists to determine that stress is associated with a decrease in the gray matter of the frontal lobe of the brain..

“If a person arrives in an unbalanced state, the level of gray matter in his brain decreases,” the researchers stated.

Experts emphasize that reducing the amount of gray matter in the hippocampus of the brain is closely related to the development of cognitive impairment and degenerative diseases..

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