Editorial: Decision-making under stress: the importance of cortico-limbic circuits

Ruud Van Den Bos,Gert Flik

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00203

Abstract

Editorial: Decision-making under stress: the importance of cortico-limbic circuits

Highlights

In many domains of society, such as the military, the police force, financial businesses, health care, and sports, decisions have to be made under stressful conditions
Here, Yu (2015) discusses the neuropsychological mechanisms of choking under pressure, i.e., while victory is within reach the subject fails; a disturbing experience as those who have experienced this will confirm. In his contribution he alludes to the prefrontalsubcortical circuits underlying choking under pressure; circuits involved in decisions and sensitive to the effects of stress
The stress response is characterized by activation of the sympatho-adrenomedullary (SAM)-axis, leading to release of catecholamines, and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex (HPA)-axis, leading to release of corticosteroids having both nongenomic, and genomic effects (Hermans et al, 2014; Quaedflieg et al, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

In many domains of society, such as the military, the police force, financial businesses, health care, and sports, decisions have to be made under stressful conditions. Optimal decision-making and performance hinges on an interconnected set of prefrontallimbic-striatal networks (e.g., Gläscher et al, 2012; van den Bos et al, 2014).

Results

Conclusion