Effects of stress on functional connectivity during verbal processing

The aim of this study was to characterize neural activation during the processing of negative facial expressions in a non-clinical group of individuals who experienced only early life stress, only recent life stress, both, or neither. Two models of stress consequences were investigated: the match/mismatch and cumulative stress models. The match/mismatch model assumes that early adversities may promote optimal coping with similar events in the future through fostering the development of coping strategies. The cumulative stress model assumes that effects of stress are additive, regardless of the timing of the stressors. Previous studies have suggested that stress can have both cumulative and match/mismatch effects on brain structure and functioning and, consequently, we hypothesized that effects on brain circuitry would be found for both models. We anticipated effects on the neural circuitry of structures engaged in face perception and emotional processing and, hence, the amygdala, fusiform face area, occipital face area, and posterior superior temporal sulcus were selected as seeds for seed-based functional connectivity analyses. We found that both the interaction between early and recent life stress, as well as cumulative stress levels, were related to alterations in functional connectivity during emotional facial expressions processing. This study adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that both the cumulative and the match/mismatch hypotheses are useful in explaining the effects of stress on humans.

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Chronic Psychosocial Stress and Experimental Pubertal Delay Affect Socioemotional Behavior and Amygdala Functional Connectivity in Adolescent Female Rhesus Macaques

10.1101/2020.09.18.304048 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Melanie Pincus ◽

Jodi S. Godfrey ◽

Eric Feczko ◽

Eric Earl ◽

Oscar Miranda-Dominguez ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Pubertal Timing ◽

High Stress ◽

Delayed Puberty ◽

Adolescent Female ◽

Pubertal Delay ◽

Chronic Psychosocial Stress ◽

Effects Of Stress ◽

The Impact

ABSTRACTIn females, pubertal onset appears to signal the opening of a window of increased vulnerability to the effects of stress on neurobehavioral development. What is the impact of pubertal timing on this process? We assessed the effects of pubertal timing and stress on behavior and amygdala functional connectivity (FC) in adolescent female macaques, whose social hierarchy provides an ethologically valid model of chronic psychosocial stress. Monkeys experienced puberty spontaneously (n=34) or pubertal delay via Lupron treatment from age 16-33 months (n=36). We examined the effects of stress (continuous dimension spanning dominant/low-stress to subordinate/high-stress) and experimental pubertal delay (Lupron-treated vs. Control) on socioemotional behavior and FC at 43-46 months, after all animals had begun puberty. Regardless of treatment, subordinate monkeys were more submissive and less affiliative, and exhibited weaker FC between amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and stronger FC between amygdala and temporal pole. Regardless of social rank, Lupron-treated monkeys were also more submissive, less affiliative, and explored less in a “Human Intruder” task but were less anxious than untreated monkeys; they exhibited stronger FC between amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex. No interactions between rank and Lupron treatment were observed. These data suggest that some of the effects of chronic subordination stress and delayed puberty overlap behaviorally, such that late-onset puberty-linked exposure to female hormones mimics chronic stress. In the brain, however, delayed puberty and subordination stress had separable effects, suggesting that the overlapping socioemotional outcomes may be mediated by distinct neuroplastic mechanisms. To gain further insights, additional longitudinal studies are required.

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Lasting effects of stress physiology on the brain: Cortisol reactivity during preschool predicts hippocampal functional connectivity at school age

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100736 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 100736 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sarah L. Blankenship ◽

Morgan Botdorf ◽

Tracy Riggins ◽

Lea R. Dougherty

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Stress Physiology ◽

School Age ◽

Cortisol Reactivity ◽

Effects Of Stress ◽

The Brain

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Effects of stress on functional connectivity during problem solving

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116407 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 208 ◽

pp. 116407

Author(s):

Neetu Nair ◽

John P. Hegarty ◽

Bradley J. Ferguson ◽

Patrick M. Hecht ◽

Michael Tilley ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Functional Connectivity ◽

Effects Of Stress

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An Alternative to Cohen's κ

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040.11.1.12 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 12-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Alexander von Eye

Keyword(s):

Simulation Study ◽

Null Hypothesis ◽

Categorical Variables ◽

Alternative Measure ◽

Rater Agreement ◽

Verbal Processing ◽

Heavy Tailed ◽

Applicant Selection

At the level of manifest categorical variables, a large number of coefficients and models for the examination of rater agreement has been proposed and used. The most popular of these is Cohen's κ. In this article, a new coefficient, κ s , is proposed as an alternative measure of rater agreement. Both κ and κ s allow researchers to determine whether agreement in groups of two or more raters is significantly beyond chance. Stouffer's z is used to test the null hypothesis that κ s = 0. The coefficient κ s allows one, in addition to evaluating rater agreement in a fashion parallel to κ, to (1) examine subsets of cells in agreement tables, (2) examine cells that indicate disagreement, (3) consider alternative chance models, (4) take covariates into account, and (5) compare independent samples. Results from a simulation study are reported, which suggest that (a) the four measures of rater agreement, Cohen's κ, Brennan and Prediger's κ n , raw agreement, and κ s are sensitive to the same data characteristics when evaluating rater agreement and (b) both the z-statistic for Cohen's κ and Stouffer's z for κ s are unimodally and symmetrically distributed, but slightly heavy-tailed. Examples use data from verbal processing and applicant selection.

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