Abstract
Contemporary theory suggests that prefrontal cortex (PFC) function is associated with individual variability in the psychobiology of the stress response. Advancing our understanding of this complex biobehavioral pathway has potential to provide insight into processes that determine individual differences in stress susceptibility. The present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain activity during a variation of the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) in 53 young adults. Salivary cortisol was assessed as an index of the stress response, trait anxiety was assessed as an index of an individual’s disposition toward negative affectivity, and self-reported stress was assessed as an index of an individual’s subjective psychological experience. Heart rate and skin conductance responses were also assessed as additional measures of physiological reactivity. Dorsomedial PFC, dorsolateral PFC, and inferior parietal lobule demonstrated differential activity during the MIST. Further, differences in salivary cortisol reactivity to the MIST were associated with ventromedial PFC and posterior cingulate activity, while trait anxiety and self-reported stress were associated with dorsomedial and ventromedial PFC activity, respectively. These findings underscore that PFC activity regulates behavioral and psychobiological components of the stress response.
Highlights
The biobehavioral response to acute stress is typically considered an allostatic process (McEwen and Wingfield, 2003; Karatsoreos and McEwen, 2011)
The conjunction analysis revealed a common region of differential activity between cortisol reactivity and self-reported stress within the ventromedial PFC (vmPFC) (Figure 6)
No regions of common activation were found between self-reported stress and trait anxiety, and no regions were found to be common among all three measures
Summary
The biobehavioral response to acute stress is typically considered an allostatic process (McEwen and Wingfield, 2003; Karatsoreos and McEwen, 2011). Dysregulation of the stress response has been implicated in allostatic load and the pathophysiology of a wide range of disorders (McEwen and Gianaros, 2011). Despite considerable advances within the last two decades investigating the correlates of allostatic load (McEwen and Gianaros, 2011), a consistent finding across studies is that individual differences are the norm rather than the exception. Determining the neural processes associated with individual variability in the stress response has the potential to advance our understanding of the nature of individual differences and stress-related disorders
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