Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex Activity Varies With Individual Differences in the Emotional Response to Psychosocial Stress

Stress elicits a variety of psychophysiological responses that show large interindividual variability. Determining the neural mechanisms that mediate individual differences in the emotional response to stress would provide new insight that would have important implications for understanding stress-r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2019-04, Vol.133 (2), p.203-211
Main Authors: Orem, Tyler R, Wheelock, Muriah D, Goodman, Adam M, Harnett, Nathaniel G, Wood, Kimberly H, Gossett, Ethan W, Granger, Douglas A, Mrug, Sylvie, Knight, David C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Amygdala
Amygdala - physiology
Brain Mapping
Conductance
Cortisol
Data processing
Emotional Responses
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Female
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Galvanic Skin Response
Heart Rate
Human
Humans
Hydrocortisone
Hydrocortisone - analysis
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System - physiology
Individual Differences
Individuality
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuroimaging
Pituitary-Adrenal System - physiology
Prefrontal Cortex
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Psychological Stress
Psychological Tests
Skin conductance response
Skin Resistance
Social interactions
Stress
Stress Reactions
Stress response
Stress, Psychological
Young Adult
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Summary:Stress elicits a variety of psychophysiological responses that show large interindividual variability. Determining the neural mechanisms that mediate individual differences in the emotional response to stress would provide new insight that would have important implications for understanding stress-related disorders. Therefore, the present study examined individual differences in the relationship between brain activity and the emotional response to stress. In the largest stress study to date, 239 participants completed the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) while heart rate, skin conductance response (SCR), cortisol, self-reported stress, and blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) signal responses were measured. The relationship between differential responses (heart rate, SCR, cortisol, and self-reported stress) and differential BOLD fMRI data was analyzed. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), dorsomedial PFC, ventromedial PFC, and amygdala activity varied with the behavioral response (i.e., SCR and self-reported stress). These results suggest the PFC and amygdala support processes that are important for the expression and regulation of the emotional response to stress, and that stress-related PFC and amygdala activity underlie interindividual variability in peripheral physiologic measures of the stress response.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/bne0000305