Andrew Huberman· PhD
post-learning increases in adrenaline accelerate and increase memory for learned material.
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The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
post-learning increases in adrenaline accelerate and increase memory for learned material.
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Now stress and epinephrine that's associated with it not only improve performance during the learning about, but as I mentioned before having epinephrine come up afterward will increase the retention of that information in the longterm.
And it turns out that the best time window to evoke the release of these chemicals, if the goal is to enhance learning and memory of the material is either immediately after or just a few minutes, five, 10, maybe 15 minutes after you're repeating that information. You're trying to learn that information.
The results of McGaugh and Cahill pointed to the fact that having adrenaline released after learning something enhanced learning of that thing.
But at a very basic level we can confidently say that there are not one, not dozens, but as I mentioned before, hundreds of studies in animals and in humans that point to the fact that triggering the increase of adrenaline late in learning or immediately after learning is going to be most beneficial if your goal is to retain that information for some period of time. And to reduce the number of repetitions required in order to learn that information.
spiking one's adrenaline and other so-called catecholamines-- so this would be dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine-- after a bout of learning can greatly enhance memory for the information that one was trying to learn.