Organisms will habituate to stressors that are experienced predictably
Not only does a lack of predictability as to when a stressor will occur has been shown to increase chronic stress, organisms will eventually habituate to a stressor if it is applied over and over; it may knock physiological allostasis equally out of balance the umpteenth time that it happens, but it is a familiar, predictable stressor by then, and a smaller stress-response is triggered. One classic demonstration involved men in the Norwegian military going through parachute training—as the process went from being hair-raisingly novel to something they could do in their sleep, their anticipatory stress-response went from being gargantuan to nonexistent. I feel like this has to do with the fact that Novelty is handled by the right hemisphere, and is transferred to the left hemisphere as it becomes familiar. Once the left hemisphere feels like it has a grasp on the situation, it relaxes.
References
- Sapolsky, Robert. (2004). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers 13. Why Is Psychological Stress Stressful? (p. 364). New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience Status:☀️