How Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Affects Writing and Learning: What Neuroscience Suggests About the Memoir Assignment

Table1
The Stress Response
Incoming Data	Data tabulated	Data analysed	Call to action	Action
		Emotional response
		Many, many cortical areas involved in responding to sensory data (Basolateral nucleus)		Hippocampus (central to learned behaviors) regulates stress response by suppressing release of CRH
Sensory data perceived by sensory system (including “gut”)	Signals converge in the spinal cord or	Signals integrated in Amygdala.	Signals sent to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis	Stress response activated: Excited activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
Sensory data perceived by sensory system (including “gut”)	Signals converge in the spinal cord or	(Central Nucleus) If stressor is judged as negative, then:	Signals sent to the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
	Some sensations evoke automatic response (no cortical involvement)	Tables 2 discusses actions resulting from increased activity of SNS and presence of cortisol		A. Hypothalamus releases corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) B. CRH stimulates Pituitary release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) C. ACTH stimulates adrenal glands to release cortisol
				More than sufficient cortisol results in hippocampus suppression of CRH. Chronic exposure to cortisol shrinks the hippocampus.

Note. The sequence outlined begins at the far left and proceeds in the direction of arrows. Arrows pointing both to and from another entry indicate reciprocal relationships. Adapted from “The Stress Response” by Bear et al., 2001, Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 2nd ed., pp. 591-680-684.