In her terrific book Bird Minds, Professor Gisela Kaplan writes about Australian magpies engaged in taunting play with one another, as a means of putting themselves under stress.

Because their cortisol levels go up during play time, they’re effectively training themselves to deal with higher and more dangerous levels of stress.

In other words, a little bit of stress not only serves as a dress rehearsal for when life gets hard, but it acts like a vaccine against future adversity.

Same goes for people

A new study from the US suggests that a similar dynamic occurs with people.

Specifically, researchers from the Youth Development Institute at the University of Georgia found that ‘‘low to moderate levels of stress can help individuals develop resilience and reduce the risk of developing mental health disorders, like depression and antisocial behaviours’’.

Just as it goes with magpies, ‘‘low to moderate stress can also help individuals to cope with future stressful encounters’’.

Further, the new study suggests that a dose of stress elevates cognition and makes you better at your job.

Dr Assaf Oshri, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, said: ‘‘If you’re in an environment where you have some level of stress, you may develop coping mechanisms that will allow you to become a more efficient and effective worker and organise yourself in a way that will help you perform.’’

What kind of stress is helpful?

According to the researchers, the kind of stress that builds a better brain might come from ‘‘studying for an exam, preparing for a big meeting at work or pulling longer hours to close the deal can all potentially lead to personal growth’’.

Even being fired from a job ‘‘could prompt someone to reconsider their strengths and whether they should stay in their field or branch out to something new’’.

As it is with magpies, so too with humans. Photo: Getty

Of course, depending on what else is going on in your life, and what kind of responsibilities you’re carrying, a major event such as losing your job can trigger depression.

The line between the right amount of stress and too much stress is a thin one, the researchers advise.

‘‘It’s like when you keep doing something hard and get a little callus on your skin,’’ Dr Oshri said.

‘‘You trigger your skin to adapt to this pressure you are applying to it. But if you do too much, you’re going to cut your skin.’’

Where did these conclusions come from?

The researchers relied on data from the US Human Connectome Project, a project funded by the National Institutes of Health ‘‘that aims to provide insight into how the human brain functions’’.

In this study, the researchers analysed data from more than 1200 young adults who reported their perceived stress levels by answering questions like ‘‘in the last month, how often have you been upset because of something that happened unexpectedly?’’ and ‘‘in the last month, how often have you found that you could not cope with all the things that you had to do?’’.

The participants’ neurocognitive abilities were then assessed using tests that measured attention and ability to suppress automatic responses to visual stimuli (holding down one’s emotional response to allow a more reasoned response to hold sway); ability to switch between tasks; picture sequence memory (which involves remembering an increasingly long series of objects); working memory and processing speed.

The combination of participants’ self-reported feelings and objectively measured cognitive abilities, allowed the researchers to determine who was thriving under stress and who was not – and to gauge when stress was helpful or destructive,

Overall, they found that ‘‘low to moderate levels of stress were psychologically beneficial, potentially acting as a kind of inoculation against developing mental health symptoms’’.

Caveats apply

But it was no surprise that ‘‘the ability to tolerate stress and adversity varies greatly according to the individual’’.

Factors such as age, genetic predispositions and ‘‘having a supportive community to fall back on in times of need’’ all play a part in how we handle challenging circumstances.

And while a little stress can be good for cognition, a life ruled by stress is potentially ruinous, physically and mentally.

‘‘At a certain point, stress becomes toxic,’’ Dr Oshri said.

‘‘Chronic stress, like the stress that comes from living in abject poverty or being abused, can have very bad health and psychological consequences. It affects everything from your immune system, to emotional regulation, to brain functioning. Not all stress is good stress.’’