Rishi, Week 14: The Pandemic and Memory
Rishi, Week 14: The Pandemic and Memory
Have you felt like your memory is much worse during the pandemic? According to Marie Eckerström, a psychologist who specializes in cognitive impairment, our lives have gone from divided sections of time to a mixed-up flurry of information. The fogginess seen in our minds is a direct result of that information overload. It’s also exasperated by the increased levels of stress we have in a post-COVID-19 world. Even though it may be intuitive to think that the pandemic allowed us to relax more, it unintentionally increased the levels of stress for many people, from parents having to deal with their children to students having to take on a heavy workload without direct support.
Humans did not evolve to sit in a home for months at a time, and this inhuman activity leads to inept biological responses. Elevated levels of cortisol, a “stress hormone,” can lead to memory loss, fatigue, and anxiety. Lower levels of dopamine cause reduced satisfaction, pleasure, and motivation. The statistics agree: there was a 27 percent increase in cases of depressive disorders worldwide during the pandemic, and that has a significant impact on memory. Zhang et al. 2020 discovered that the social distancing caused a “lonely mood” that many individuals experienced, leading to short-term memory loss. The literature suggests that humans, highly social organisms, depend on physical connections with other humans to retain some neurological functions. There's still a lot we don’t know about this phenomenon.
How can you avoid pandemic-induced memory loss? Studies suggest that interacting with nature and doing outdoor physical exercise has immense benefits—improving short-term memory by 20 percent through exposure to nature. It might be good to step outside for a bit tonight.
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Photo by Yuriy Vertikov
Hi Rishi, I just finished reading Aishwara's blog, and you both talk about the importance of physical activity to improve one's memory. The pandemic started in 2020, and I felt that time had gone by in a blink of an eye. I never really got to do anything interesting during the lockdown and lacked enthusiasm when completing my mundane tasks. Online school taught me to be grateful for face-to-face social interactions, and I feel that is the only way to create genuine connections with people. That being said, I did make a few friends over online school, but that friendship never transferred when I went back to in-person school
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of going out into nature after a long day of staying cooped up inside the house because the greenery just seems to magically clear my mind. On weekends when I have a lot of homework, (basically every single weekend,) I like to take breaks by stepping out into my backyard and staring at our home-garden and the sky with my dog. It is very relaxing and therapeutic, and I am glad to know it improves my memory as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Rishi! It was especially noticeable during the pandemic that social connections are quite important not only for building certain neural connections but also maintaining a healthy mental state. I remember my parents forcing me to go outside on runs and hikes to maintain my physical health. I had no idea that it would also help my short term memory too! Also I am not sure why but I found this line in your blog hilarious: "Humans did not evolve to sit in a home for months at a time."
ReplyDeleteHello Rishi,
ReplyDeleteStress can certainly fog the mind. Sometimes I just sit in class unable to think straight for no apparent reason. It feels like my mind is aching and needs to be cleaned out. Going on a walk and taking some time to work on myself always helps un-fog my head. I think with the pandemic, our perspective on reality became short-range and the future suddenly became unclear, hence why our minds are fogging. Like the fog on a window, we are not used to the colder external reality as it blasts away at us but are forced to keep ourselves warm and adapted to the same old world we thought would never change.
Hey Rishi, this was actually really interesting because a lot of my friends right now claim that I have short term memory loss since I forget a lot of things people tell me really easily. I think I actually had better memory in the pandemic personally because there was just so much less going on and so much more time to think that everything stayed in my memory longer. This year, there is so much work and so many different people talking about so many different things that I either zone out or my brain just doesn't retain that much information. I guess it just depends on everyone's experiences with the pandemic because I know there were definitely a lot of people who were more susceptible to the negative effects of the pandemic than others and where a lot of people were also less stressed during the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree on the aspect that stress fogs memory because I feel like we are all experiencing it right now. In times like when we were in kindergarten, first grade, or even during the pandemic, our stress levels were drastically low compared to the stress we are facing right now. That being said, I've definitely realized my memory deteriorate as I grew older, gained more responsibilities and had to process, understand and learn a lot more information. The more I had going on in my life with the homework loads increasing every year, the more stress I had, leading to a deteriorating memory. I don't think I realized too much about this until your post so thank you for this informative post!
ReplyDeleteHi Rishi! My memory has definitely gotten worse during the pandemic. I remember noticing the repetitive routines of zoom school induce a lot of brain fog and it still plagues my brain to this day. Nevertheless, in that aspect, I am glad to be back for in person school. A daily change of scenery is definitely helpful.
ReplyDeleteHi Rishi! Your article was very informative. It is so interesting to see the relation between stress and the pandemic. Staying at home hindered so much activity and progress that would normally allow stress reduction and relaxation. Examples include social interaction and work. Staying at home allowed people to be cooped up with their feelings, with no form of release. This is added onto other COVID detriments, like small business closures, unemployment, or sickness. This leads to the immense importance of physical connection to human stress. I too feel a lot of the memory effects of the pandemic, and I really enjoyed your article justifying these happenings.
ReplyDeleteHi Rishi, it definitely makes sense that a pandemic like the one we have been through could induce memory loss through significantly increased amounts of stress. The stress of having the entire world as we have always known it being turned upside down would create a major crisis in our brains, whether we actually acknowledge it or it remains buried inside the unconscious mind. Some people have been able to cope with the phenomenon of the pandemic better than others. For some, reality as they always knew it became warped and distorted, which added a layer of the unknown and loss of control over their lives. Disorder can affect people deeply to the point of memory loss or confusion.
ReplyDelete