Pilot Study
Short Term Memory Profile
According to Medical News Today (Stress Makes You..., 2004), stress activates an enzyme in the brain, Kinase C, a protein that undermines short-term memory as well as other brain functions in the prefrontal cortex. In the Miami Touch Institute study of 1996 the concentration level of the participants were tested through the computation of math problems (Job Stress, 1996). In this study, we did not replicate the concentration test, but we tested the short-term memory retention span of the participants.
Two Rockefeller Laboratories have found that chronic stress alters the neurons in the hippocampus an area in the brain necessary for learning and memory. Their tests were conducted on mice but the findings are relevant in unraveling the molecular mechanisms underlying stress related memory impairment in humans. The hippocampus, is a structure in the brain responsible for contextual and episodic memory, memories involving people, places and events. Pawlak and Melchor found that stressed mice were much slower to learn where the hidden platform was located in a water maze, but once they found the platform they remembered the location as well as the unstressed mice. McEwen (Long Term Stress..., 2005) was sited as saying that "Stress fuzzes your brain because it slows down the cognitive process" and "You’re still able to learn, but it slows you down".
Another study conducted to assess whether an enzyme called tPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) is required for a stress response found that results suggested tPA prevents damage to Hippocampal neurons during stressful times since normal mice when stressed, exhibited a decrease in dendritic spines and NMDA receptors while tPA deficient mice manifested no change at all. Researchers believe that this decrease in dendritic spines can be seen as a protective mechanism, they believe that the changes in the brain are protecting the Hippocampus against permanent damage. (Long Term Stress, 2005). The good news according to McEwen as sited in (Long Term Stress, 2005) is, "Everything we've found out about stress and the hippocampus is that the effects are largely reversible if you terminate the stress."
The results of this study indicate that therapy has a positive impact on short-term memory over time. For employers of stressed employees it is important to know that there is a safe and natural way of improving and maintaining the productivity of the workforce. A holistic stress therapy program (HOST) can be implemented at reasonable cost to the company but with very good return on investment in their human capital.
Short Term Memory
This graph depicts the control group (blue line) data over time. The green line depicts the before and after treatment data (average) of the test group over time. The orange line depicts the test group data before treatment and the purple line the test group data after treatment. It is clear that the data from the test group after treatment displays the most improvement over time. The test group reaches their starting point memory score on day 13 and steadily improves. As demonstrated in Graph 99, after day 38 the sample size are less than 60%, which means the data from this point onwards is not reliable. Interesting to see that the before and after treatment lines meet on day 38 of the trial. This might indicate that the stress levels have decreased in general and that the employees commenced therapy sessions in a better overall condition over time illustrated by the orange line.