A lack of predictability as to when a stressor will occur has been shown to increase chronic stress
Rat studies have uncovered another variable modulating the stress-response. The rat gets the same pattern of electric shocks, but this time, just before each shock, it hears a warning bell. Fewer ulcers. Predictability makes stressors less stressful. The rat with the warning gets two pieces of information. It learns when something dreadful is about to happen. The rest of the time, it learns that something dreadful is not about to happen. It can relax. The rat without a warning can always be a half-second away from the next shock. In effect, information that increases predictability tells you that there is bad news, but comforts you that it’s not going to be worse—you are going to get shocked soon, but it’s never going to be sprung on you without warning. By being given news about the stressor to come, you are also implicitly being comforted by now knowing what stressors are not coming.
I think this can be attibuted with the fact that The left hemisphere prioritizes things that it already knows and expects. This kind of stress involves a left hemiphere resistance to unpredicable phenomena. Where as The right frontal lobes allow for flexibility in thought and behavior, so it may be more adaptive in unpredicable situations.
References
- Sapolsky, Robert. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers 13. Why Is Psychological Stress Stressful? (p. 363). New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience Status:☀️