Memory and Stress

[ZirconBlue]

Fairly recently, I read or heard a story about a study that seemed to indicate that, during stressful situations, our brains store more images, and that maybe this is why, in our memory, time seems to have slowed. Anyone else hear about this, or was I imagining it? I've spent quite a bit of time googling and searching this forum and the NPR website in hopes of tracking it down, but with no luck.

 

[BowlOfRed]

Just a guess, but since you said NPR, maybe you were instead thinking of a Radiolab episode?
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/sep/20/letting-go/

 

[dlorde]

I've seen a few articles suggesting that the rush of hormonal activity in a crisis causes the amygdala to become hyperactive and results in more memory traces laid down than normal. This article suggests that recalled perception of time seems slower, but physical performance during the episode is no different.

 

[ZirconBlue]

Just a guess, but since you said NPR, maybe you were instead thinking of a Radiolab episode?
http://www.radiolab.org/2010/sep/20/letting-go/

Maybe that's it. If so, I must have heard a repeat, since that's from a couple of years ago. I'll give it a listen.

 

[sowhat]

Many years ago I had an accident in my car with my wife, two small chidren and a friend on board. The car flipped and rolled over down an embankment of the Bronx River. We were all wearing seat belts, and remarkably no one was seriously injured.
I mention it here, because it felt to me at the time as if time had speeded up dramatically, rather than slowed down.
In the time it took for us to get out of the car, it seemed to me that the emergency responders were already waiting for us. The affect was quite pronounced.