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Experiments have been conducted in which subjects are shown slides of varying emotional content. Immediately after watching the slides, subjects immerse one arm in a tub of ice water. The immersion triggers the stress hormone response, which in turn enhances the subjects' memory of the slides. Subjects who endured the ice water for a full three minutes, recalled the emotional slides more clearly than did the control subjects, whose arms were not immersed in water.

The amygdala, a small almond-shaped region of the brain near the hippocampus, is responsible for this enhanced memory. Through research with rats, it has been shown that stimulating the amygdala with a drug that emulates the effects of stress hormones helps memories become more firmly fixed and retained. Without the amygdala, all of our memories would be remembered equally: the loss of a loved one, what you ate for Thanksgiving dinner, and where you parked your car.

But even emotional memories are not remembered equally. Scientists have scanned the brains of men and women while they watched emotionally arousing events. The results show that in men typically only the right amygdala is activated; in women, the left amygdala is activated. Previous research suggests that the right brain processes the general gist of events while the left side focuses on the details. This split could account for discrepancies between the way men and women recall emotional fights or events.

- Taken from Scientific American Frontiers

If you have a big test coming up be sure to stick your arm in a sink full of Ice Water right after studying. It is the pain of leaving it in past discomfort which will release the chemicals that will enhance neuronic memory tracts and help you retain the information. Cool stuff....