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Why do we stay

Why do we stay "blank" on certain occasions?

March 29, 2024

It has always happened to all of us that, for some reason, we realize that over a few seconds or minutes we are unable to think of something concrete or to remember those elements that we are looking for in the archive of our memory, however basic they may be.

For example, when it comes to public speaking it can happen that if we are even able to remember what was the basic message we want to communicate, let alone the lines of the script we had prepared. It can also happen in more conventional contexts. For example, when in a meeting of friends we had no idea what to say, although what was being talked about was a subject of which to comment is relatively easy.


This phenomenon is known as staying blank, and has an explanation that has to do with the way in which memory relates to certain psychological states.

The explanation for the phenomenon of staying blank

The first thing to keep in mind to understand why we sometimes stay blank is that all our mental activity, even in its most insignificant aspects, has to do with our memories.

Memory is not simply a storeroom in which some little man who manages the functioning of our brain accumulates relevant information. Everything we are and do is expressed through our actions because in the past we have internalized all kinds of experiences. A brain completely devoid of memory is inconceivable , because everything that happens in our brain has to do with the trace that past experiences have left in our brain.


In short, memories are not simply those pieces of information that we keep of experiences that have happened to us, nor the data that we strive to memorize. Memory is the way in which an odor makes us feel bad because we associate it with something that happened to us years ago, and also it's the way we've learned to relate certain ideas to each other , allowing our thinking to flow without great efforts.

The fact of staying blank is a sign that our memory is suffering a small crisis in its basic functioning. For some reason, a good part of our memories have been out of our reach temporarily, and that causes the thought to find itself with dead ends for a while.

The role of stress in the recovery of memories

Sometimes, the appearance of moments in which we stay blank may be due to defects in the parts of the brain that are involved in the recovery of memories . For example, one of the main symptoms of dementias is the loss-making recovery of memories.


However, this same phenomenon (with less intensity and frequency) is also normal in perfectly healthy brains. In these situations, stress plays a very important role. When we go through moments of anxiety, many of the mental processes that govern the functioning of the brain change completely.

Anxiety may seem small if we interpret it only as an annoying feeling, but it's actually accompanied by a neurochemical chain reaction It affects the entire nervous system and the release of hormones that target different organs of our body. And, of course, anxiety also influences memory.

In particular, when we feel stressed parts of our body known as adrenal glands (because they are located on the kidneys) they begin to secrete a variety of hormones known as glucocorticoids . These chemical substances are not only responsible for being unable to remember what happened to us at times when we were experiencing very high acute stress (such as a motorcycle accident); also, significantly diminish our ability to access memories that we had already stored and that we could have remembered just a few minutes ago.

The effect of glucocorticoids on the hippocampus

When we start to feel stress, such as before an exam, our nervous system enters a state of alert that associates situations of danger. That means that our body becomes an alarm that reacts to signs of danger that in other contexts would have been ignored because they are unimportant, that is, the activation of the brain is oriented towards the reception of external stimuli .

This allows you to start moving quickly to avoid damage, but for this you pay the price of not dedicating too many resources to reason or think in a minimally creative way, which is what is necessary to articulate moderately elaborated sentences.

In these situations glucocorticoids interfere fully in the functioning of the hippocampus, a part of the brain known to be the directory of memories that can be expressed verbally (declarative memory). While the levels of this hormone are high, the hippocampus will have more difficulties of the normal ones when it comes to accessing memories and associations between concepts learned through experience.

Further, The effects of glucocorticoids do not disappear just when acute stress subsides . Their levels persist for a long time, and if we experience chronic stress, their levels will almost never go down completely, which means that we will experience these mental gaps more frequently. That is why the times when we stay blank do not happen only when we feel very nervous; They can be part of the aftermath of having felt anxiety continuously.


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