Dynamic neural activity during stress signals resilient coping

Abstract

Active coping underlies a healthy stress response, but neural processes supporting such resilient coping are not well-known. Using a brief, sustained exposure paradigm contrasting highly stressful, threatening, and violent stimuli versus nonaversive neutral visual stimuli in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we show significant subjective, physiologic, and endocrine increases and temporally related dynamically distinct patterns of neural activation in brain circuits underlying the stress response. First, stressspecific sustained increases in the amygdala, striatum, hypothalamus, midbrain, right insula, and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) regions supported the stress processing and reactivity circuit. Second, dynamic neural activation during stress versus neutral runs, showing early increases followed by later reduced activation in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), left DLPFC, hippocampus, and left insula, suggested a stress adaptation response network. Finally, dynamic stress-specific mobilization of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VmPFC), marked by initial hypoactivity followed by increased VmPFC activation, pointed to the VmPFC as a key locus of the emotional and behavioral control network. Consistent with this finding, greater neural flexibility signals in the VmPFC during stress correlated with active coping ratings whereas lower dynamic activity in the VmPFC also predicted a higher level of maladaptive coping behaviors in real life, including binge alcohol intake, emotional eating, and frequency of arguments and fights. These findings demonstrate acute functional neuroplasticity during stress, with distinct and separable brain networks that underlie critical components of the stress response, and a specific role for VmPFC neuroflexibility in stress-resilient coping.functional neuroimaging | stress | resilience coping | binge alcohol intake | emotional eating

Alcohol, stress, and glucocorticoids: From risk to dependence and relapse in alcohol use disorders

“…In support of this, our recent work has also shown that those who show sustained prefrontal hypoactivation in response to stress show greater levels of maladaptive coping, including binge alcohol intake (Blaine et al, 2016; Sinha et al, 2016). Thus, binge alcohol intake and alcohol use disorders may develop as a result of dysfunctional stress biology including the HPA axis and the sympathetic nervous system, and PFC dysfunction in response to a feed forward loop of high levels of alcohol intake that leads to greater subjective stress and stress-induced alcohol craving and further increases in alcohol intake.…”

“…Red/yellow, positive correlation; blue/purple, negative correlation. (Reproduced with permission from Sinha et al, 2016, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).…”

Cardiovascular and autonomic reactivity to psychological stress: Neurophysiological substrates and links to cardiovascular disease

“…In contrast, weakened or inverse stressor-evoked connectivity would be represented by overall decreases or more negative correlations between two areas or within network as a whole. The first and most common approach in this line of work is to select a predetermined, anatomical region-of-interest or ‘seed’ (e.g., the amygdala) and then compare the relationships (correlations) between activity in that seed and activity in other brain regions at rest, during a stressor task, or during stressor recovery (e.g., Fan et al, 2015; Sinha et al, 2016). Studies using these network-based approaches typically examine how groups of brain areas are altered by stressor tasks, but they have rarely measured how individual differences in peripheral physiological (e.g., HR, BP) responses relate to network-level or connectivity changes.…”

“…Studies using these network-based approaches typically examine how groups of brain areas are altered by stressor tasks, but they have rarely measured how individual differences in peripheral physiological (e.g., HR, BP) responses relate to network-level or connectivity changes. For example, using a seed-based approach Sinha and colleagues (2016) demonstrated that viewing aversive pictures increased the functional connectivity (cross-correlation) between vmPFC activity and the left anterior PFC, dorsolateral PFC, and inferior parietal lobe. As another example, using a seed-based approach, Gianaros and colleagues (2012) demonstrated that functional connectivity of a canonical visceral control area, the anterior insula (Oppenheimer & Cechetto, 2016), was increased during a psychological stressor that increased BP and decreased cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity.…”

Psychosocial-Stress, Liver Regeneration and Weight Gain: a Conspicuous Pathophysiological Triad

“…The arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus contains distinct populations of neurons, which contain appetite stimulators NPY and AgRP. This linkage of systems is highly influenced by long-term stress resulting in altered physiological parameters and causes excessive weight gain leading to obesity [29-35]. …”