Abstract
Recent progress in neuroscience revealed diverse regions of the CNS which moderate autonomic and affective responses. The ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a key role in these regulations. There is evidence that vmPFC activity is associated with cardiovascular changes during a motor task that are mediated by parasympathetic activity. Moreover, vmPFC activity makes important contributions to regulations of affective and stressful situations.This review selectively summarizes literature in which vmPFC activation was studied in healthy subjects as well as in patients with affective disorders. The reviewed literature suggests that vmPFC activity plays a pivotal role in biopsychosocial processes of disease. Activity in the vmPFC might link affective disorders, stressful environmental conditions, and immune function.
Highlights
Since Walter Cannon described the behavioral and physiologic sequels of the fight-flight response in cats, research has come a long way by studying the many physiologic consequences of acute and chronic stress conditions in humans [1,2]
This review selectively summarizes literature in which ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activation was studied in healthy subjects as well as in patients with affective disorders
Depressive disorders are associated with disturbances in autonomic nervous system activity measured by heart rate variability [6]
Summary
Since Walter Cannon described the behavioral and physiologic sequels of the fight-flight response in cats, research has come a long way by studying the many physiologic consequences of acute and chronic stress conditions in humans [1,2]. Patients with loss of the right vmPFC, responded differently to the other groups in so far as they showed significant increases in heart rate and blood pressure after the pleasant slides This difference in cardiovascular responses to emotional stimuli in patients with right-sided and left-sided vmPFC damage points to a possible hemispheric specialization. It seems as if the left vmPFC predominantly governs parasympathetic activation, while the right vmPFC primarily inhibits sympathetic nervous system activity. Compared to healthy individuals who, as expected, had a negatively correlated activity of amygdala and vmPFC, depressed patients showed a positive association between the two regions Another group investigated vmPFC activation after emotional stimulation in depressed patients [28]. Their vmPFC activity is decreased when they are exposed to reminders of traumatic events [37]
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