Abstract
Aversive events can evoke strong emotions that trigger cerebral neuroactivity to facilitate behavioral and cognitive shifts to secure physiological stability. However, upon intense and/or chronic exposure to such events, the neural coping processes can be maladaptive and disrupt mental well-being. This maladaptation denotes a pivotal point when psychological stress occurs, which can trigger subconscious, “automatic” neuroreactivity as a defence mechanism to protect the individual from potential danger including overwhelming unpleasant feelings and disturbing or threatening thoughts.The outcomes of maladaptive neural activity are cognitive dysfunctions such as altered memory, decision making, and behavior that impose a risk for mental disorders. Although the neurocognitive phenomena associated with psychological stress are well documented, the complex neural activity and pathways related to stressor detection and stress coping have not been outlined in detail. Accordingly, we define acute and chronic stress-induced pathways, phases, and stages in relation to novel/unpredicted, uncontrollable, and ambiguous stressors. We offer a comprehensive model of the stress-induced alterations associated with multifaceted pathophysiology related to cognitive appraisal and executive functioning in stress.
Highlights
The impact of minor and major stressors on psychological and physical health is well documented
Stress-coping abilities during stress anticipation depended on ‘‘secondary’’ cognitive appraisal related to the perception of poor self-efficacy, but not on ‘‘primary’’ cognitive appraisal
When cognitive appraisal assigns a negative value to the salient stimuli, it is the moment they become psychological stressors and stress arises
Summary
The impact of minor and major stressors on psychological and physical health is well documented. Dickerson et al.’s (2004) meta-analysis provides evidence that uncontrollable social threat relates to the highest levels of cortisol and adrenocorticotropin hormone responses to stress and the longest post-stress recovery Aversive emotions in both stress and stress anticipation that result in NE surge affect cortisol influence on attention, cognitive flexibility, memory, and learning, and aggravate the intensity of a stressor (Skosnik et al, 2000; Morilak et al, 2005; Alexander et al, 2007; Kvetnansky et al, 2009; Gray et al, 2017). Attentional tunneling and enhanced memory for aversive experiences can lead to psychological maladjustment, for instance, emotion-focused coping, anxiety, and PTSD (e.g., Palamarchuk and Vaillancourt, under review)
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