" We’re studying plasticity, i.e. how the brain adapts to things different in our environments. Everything that changes might also change plasticity in the brain. Changes in structure can also change function, and we know that it’s a lot more complicated than just “what does stress do?” It actually depends when in life the stress comes. Young developing brains are much more vulnerable to mature brains, which is why there are different effects of stress. And additionally, someone’s appraisal of a situation can change, so we see that there are many stressors that can be damaging to the brain and to susceptible areas of the brain that have to do with memory like the hippocampus. "