Neural effects of controllability as a key dimension of stress exposure

Abstract

Cross-species evidence suggests that the ability to exert control over a stressor is a key dimension of stress exposure that may sensitize frontostriatal-amygdala circuitry to promote more adaptive responses to subsequent stressors. The present study examined neural correlates of stressor controllability in young adults. Participants (N = 56; Mage = 23.74, range = 18–30 years) completed either the controllable or uncontrollable stress condition of the first of two novel stressor controllability tasks during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquisition. Participants in the uncontrollable stress condition were yoked to age- and sex-matched participants in the controllable stress condition. All participants were subsequently exposed to uncontrollable stress in the second task, which is the focus of fMRI analyses reported here. A whole-brain searchlight classification analysis revealed that patterns of activity in the right dorsal anterior insula (dAI) during subsequent exposure to uncontrollable stress could be used to classify participants' initial exposure to either controllable or uncontrollable stress with a peak of 73% accuracy. Previous experience of exerting control over a stressor may change the computations performed within the right dAI during subsequent stress exposure, shedding further light on the neural underpinnings of stressor controllability.

Characterizing experiential elements of early-life stress to inform resilience: Buffering effects of controllability and predictability and the importance of their timing

“…The present study represents a substantial deviation from the extant literature, in that here we examined participants' perceptions of stressors as characterized by controllability or predictability, rather than defining exposure categories a-priori, experimentally manipulating the degree to which an aversive exposure was controllable (Boeke et al, 2017;Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023;Hartley et al, 2014) or predictable (Baram et al, 2012), or, alternatively, examining broader exposure to controllability (Meyers & Wong, 1988) or unpredictability (Glynn et al, 2018) of life experiences or broader environments. Subjective perception of the impact of traumatic stress has been proposed to be a crucial factor influencing associations between exposure to traumatic stress and mental health symptoms (Danese & Widom, 2021;Smith & Pollak, 2021); therefore, a novel line of research investigating perceptions of dimensional characterization of stress exposure has the potential to further elucidate mechanisms by which stress exposure affects later functioning.…”

“…Finally, fine-grained developmental inquiry into the impact of exposure to particular experiential elements of stress reported here was facilitated by recent advances in dimensional assessment of lifetime traumatic stress exposure (Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023). While several previous assessment tools facilitate accurate capture of the timing of exposure to various types of traumatic stress exposures (e.g., Teicher & Parigger, 2015), the DISTAL (the electronic version of which was utilized in the present study) is the first psychometrically-validated tool that affords examination of the developmental timing of exposure to a broad range of features of stress exposure, including controllability and predictability (Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023). Utilizing assessment tools that afford testing of dimension-and developmental time periodspecific questions about the impact of traumatic stress on subsequent functioning will continue to be essential to field-wide efforts to improve understanding of the nuanced ways in which traumatic stress affects the developing brain and behavior.…”

“…The DISTAL-E is an electronic, self-administered adaptation of the Dimensional Inventory of Stress and Trauma Across the Lifespan (DISTAL; Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023). Like the clinical interview-based version of the measure, the structure of the DISTAL-E is broadly based on the structure of the University of California, Los Angeles, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index (Pynoos & Steinberg, 2017; Steinberg et al, 2004).…”

“…All study procedures were executed via distribution of a REDCap survey (Harris et al, 2009) on Amazon TurkPrime (managed via the Amazon CloudResearch platform). Participants provided informed consent prior to completing the DISTAL-E (electronic version of the DISTAL; Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023) and the TSC-40, and were thanked, debriefed, and compensated $20 for completion of test procedures. Attention checks (e.g., "I have been paying attention") were embedded in each questionnaire that comprised the overall battery.…”

“…Following this comprehensive reporting of the list of ages at which a participant was exposed to a particular type of adversity, for each age of exposure that an individual endorsed, specific features of the exposure at a given age were queried (i.e., all dimensional queries were at the level of adversity type at a given age; e.g., serious accidental injury at age 5). All event-specific module questions were adapted from the DISTAL (see Cohodes, Odriozola et al, 2023, for details on the phrasing of specific module-level questions).…”