It is a known fact that chronic stress has adverse effect on physical and mental health. Stress is also cited as a risk factor behind various diseases.

Recent study indicated that acute stress or a short stressful incident has positive effect on learning and memory. Researchers used animal models to demonstrate that acute stress can enhance learning and memory.

During study, research team led by Zhen Yan, professor of physiology and biophysics at University at Buffalo trained rats in a maze until they could complete it correctly
60-70 percent of the time.

After these rates achieved this level of accuracy for two consecutive days, half of the rates were put through a 20-minute forced swim which signified acute stress. After swim rats were put again in maze.

Research team found that rates who have encountered acute stress made significantly fewer mistakes as they went through the maze both four hours after the stressful experience and one day post-stress as compared to other rats.

Zhen Yan, says, "Stress hormones have both protective and damaging effects on the body. This paper and others we have in the pipeline explain why we need stress to perform better, but don't want to be stressed out."

Researchers believe that acute stress has positive effect on learning through the effect of the stress hormone corticosterone (cortisol in humans) on the brain's prefrontal cortex, a key region that controls learning and emotion.