Threat-induced hippocampal connectivity fingerprints do not generalize to psychosocial stress

AbstractStress is an everyday experience and maladaptive responses play a crucial role in the etiology of affective disorders. Despite its ubiquity, the neural underpinnings of subjective stress experiences have not yet been elucidated, particularly at an individual level. In an important advance, Goldfarb et al.1 showed recently that subjective stress and arousal levels in response to threatening stimuli were successfully predicted based on changes in hippocampal connectivity during the task using a machine learning approach. Crucially, stress responses were predicted by interpretable hippocampal connectivity networks, shedding new light on the role of the hippocampus in regulating stress reactivity2. However, the authors induced stress by displaying aversive pictures, while stress research often relies on the extensively validated Trier social stress task (TSST)3. The TSST incorporates crucial factors such as unpredictability of success and the social-evaluative threat of the stressor thereby eliciting cortisol responses more robustly compared to threatening images4. Towards generalization, cross validation within a sample as conducted by Goldfarb et al.1 or independent replications are important steps, but the generalizability to different stressors allows to draw broader conclusions about the potential use of hippocampal connectivity to predict subjective stress5. Arguably, translating these findings to clinical applications would require a broad generalization of the results or the prediction algorithm to psychosocial stress. Here, we assessed the predictive performance of Goldfarb et al’s1 algorithm for subjective stress in an independent sample using an MR adaption of the TSST6,7. In line with Goldfarb et al.1, we observed robust stress-induced changes in hippocampal connectivity. However, the spatial correlation of the changes in connectivity was low indicating little convergence across alleged stress paradigms. Critically, stress-induced changes of hippocampal connectivity were not robustly predictive of subjective stress across a multiverse of analyses based on connectivity changes. Collectively, this indicates that the generalizability of the reported stress connectivity fingerprint to other stressors is limited at best, suggesting that specific tasks might require tailored algorithms to robustly predict stress above chance levels.

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Influence of a Suggestive Placebo Intervention on Psychobiological Responses to Social Stress

Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine ◽

10.1177/2156587215588642 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 3-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Frank Zimmermann-Viehoff ◽

Nico Steckhan ◽

Karin Meissner ◽

Hans-Christian Deter ◽

Clemens Kirschbaum

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Alpha Amylase ◽

Subjective Stress ◽

Psychological Variables ◽

Placebo Intervention

We tested the hypothesis that a suggestive placebo intervention can reduce the subjective and neurobiological stress response to psychosocial stress. Fifty-four healthy male subjects with elevated levels of trait anxiety were randomly assigned in a 4:4:1 fashion to receive either no treatment (n = 24), a placebo pill (n = 24), or a herbal drug (n = 6) before undergoing a stress test. We repeatedly measured psychological variables as well as salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and heart rate variability prior to and following the stress test. The stressor increased subjective stress and anxiety, salivary cortisol, and alpha-amylase, and decreased heart rate variability (all P < .001). However, no significant differences between subjects receiving placebo or no treatment were found. Subjects receiving placebo showed increased wakefulness during the stress test compared with no-treatment controls ( P < .001). Thus, the suggestive placebo intervention increased alertness, but modulated neither subjective stress and anxiety nor the physiological response to psychosocial stress.

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Effects of d-amphetamine upon psychosocial stress responses

Journal of Psychopharmacology ◽

10.1177/0269881116650388 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 30 (7) ◽

pp. 608-615 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Emma Childs ◽

Anya K Bershad ◽

Harriet de Wit

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Real Life ◽

Cognitive Appraisals ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Laboratory Animals ◽

Double Blind

Psychostimulant drugs alter the salience of stimuli in both laboratory animals and humans. In animals, stimulants increase rates of responding to conditioned incentive stimuli, and in humans, amphetamine increases positive ratings of emotional images. However, the effects of stimulants on real-life emotional events have not been studied in humans. In this study, we examined the effect of d-amphetamine on responses to acute psychosocial stress using a public speaking task. Healthy volunteers ( N=56) participated in two experimental sessions, one with a psychosocial stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test) and one with a non-stressful control task. They were randomly assigned to receive d-amphetamine (5 mg n=18, 10 mg n=20) or placebo ( n=18) on both sessions under double blind conditions. Salivary cortisol, subjective mood, and vital signs were measured at regular intervals during the session. Subjects also provided cognitive appraisals of the tasks before and after their performances. Amphetamine produced its expected mood and physiological effects, and the Trier Social Stress Test produced its expected effects on cortisol and mood. Although neither dose of amphetamine altered cardiovascular or hormonal responses to stress, amphetamine (10 mg) increased participants’ pre-task appraisals of how challenging the task would be, and it increased post-task ratings of self-efficacy. Paradoxically, it also increased ratings of how stressful the task was, and prolonged aversive emotional responses. These findings suggest that amphetamine differentially affects stress response components: it may increase participants’ appraisals of self-efficacy without dampening the direct emotional or physiological responses to the stress.

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The late positive potentials evoked by negative emotional pictures predict autonomic responses to an acute psychosocial stressor in healthy adults

10.1101/2021.05.18.21257390 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hongxia Duan ◽

Zhuxi Yao ◽

Liang Zhang ◽

Nils Kohn ◽

Jianhui Wu

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Stress Test ◽

Healthy Adults ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Psychosocial Stressor ◽

Autonomic Responses ◽

Increased Risk ◽

Negative Stimuli

Individuals vary substantially in their response to an acute stressor. Identifying the factors contributing to these individual differences in stress reactivity is of particular interest but still remains largely unknown in the stress and resilience domain. The present study aimed to investigate whether and how brain reactivity to negative stimuli during a non-stressful state could predict autonomic and neuroendocrine stress responses to an acute psychosocial stressor in healthy adults. To address this issue, fifty-two healthy young adults were recruited to view negative or neutral pictures while their electroencephalogram was recorded during a non-stressful state on the first experimental day. On the second experimental day, their autonomic and neuroendocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) were measured. Results showed that increased late positive potential (LPP) to negative relative to neutral pictures was significantly associated with higher heart rate response but not with the cortisol response to acute social stress. These results implicate greater neural reactivity to negative stimuli as a physiological marker of heightened acute autonomic responses. These findings may help identify individuals who are at increased risk of developing negative outcomes under stress.

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Neuroendocrine responses to a psychosocial stress test for larger groups of participants: comparison of two test exposures

Endocrine Regulations ◽

10.2478/enr-2020-0028 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 54 (4) ◽

pp. 255-259

Author(s):

Jakub Rajcani ◽

Petra Solarikova ◽

Igor Brezina ◽

Daniela Jezova

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Anxiety State ◽

Stress Tests ◽

Social Evaluative Threat ◽

Before And After ◽

Neuroendocrine Responses ◽

The Individual

Abstract Objective. Individual stress tests characterized by social evaluative threat and uncontrollability are known to elicit strong neuroendocrine responses. We tested whether a psychosocial stressor submitted to a larger group of participants (up to 60) may elicit comparable stress responses. Methods. A total of 59 adult subjects (33 women, 26 men) participated in the study, whereas 24 of them suffered from allergy and 35 were healthy. The stress test consisted of a distraction stress task followed by a speech task, in which the participants were randomly subjected to questions related to a topic that they had to prepare as well as arithmetic questions in front of their peers and a committee that responded in standardized and non-supporting manner. State and trait anxiety inventory (STAI) for anxiety state was administrated before and after the test and salivary samples taking. The test was repeated after five months. Results. The results showed that the shared psychosocial stress application in a larger group of subjects was prosperous. The larger group test (LGST) resulted in an enhanced subjectively experienced stress and an intensive sympathetic nervous system activation, reflected by elevated salivary alpha-amylase activity and the heart rate. The cortisol increment after exposure to the stress test was not significant. Repeated exposure to the test failed to reproduce the original stress responses with exception of the heart rate rise. Conclusions. In a larger group of subjects, the psychosocial stress test did elicit stress responses similar to the individual stress tests. Our data indicate that the above-mentioned stress test is apparently not an appropriate approach for the repeated use.

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Specific reduction in cortisol stress reactivity after social but not attention-based mental training

10.31231/osf.io/8d7ez ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Veronika Engert ◽

Bethany Kok ◽

Ioannis Papassotiriou ◽

George P. Chrousos ◽

Tania Singer

Keyword(s):

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Physiological Stress ◽

Financial Burden ◽

Effective Means ◽

Present Moment ◽

Mental Training ◽

Immune Markers ◽

Public Health Burden

Psychosocial stress is a public health burden in modern societies. Chronic stress–induced disease processes are,in large part, mediated via the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system. We asked whether the contemplative mental training of different practice types targetingattentional, socio-affective (for example, compassion), or socio-cognitive abilities (for example, perspective-taking)in the context of a 9-month longitudinal training study offers an effective means for psychosocial stress reduction.Using a multimethod approach including subjective, endocrine, autonomic, and immune markers and testing 313participants in a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor, we show that all three practice types markedly reducedself-reported stress reactivity in healthy participants. However, only the training of intersubjective skills via socio-affective and socio-cognitive routes attenuated the physiological stress response, specifically the secretion of theHPA axis end-product cortisol, by up to 51%. The assessed autonomic and innate immune markers were not influencedby any practice type. Mental training focused on present-moment attention and interoceptive awareness as im-plemented in many mindfulness-based intervention programs was thus limited to stress reduction on the level ofself-report. However, its effectiveness was equal to that of intersubjective practice types in boosting the associationbetween subjective and endocrine stress markers. Our results reveal a broadly accessible low-cost approach toacquiring psychosocial stress resilience. Short daily intersubjective practice may be a promising method for mini-mizing the incidence of chronic social stress–related disease, thereby reducing individual suffering and relieving asubstantial financial burden on society.

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Influence of Personal Meaning Organization and 5-HTTLPR Genotype on Cortisol Stress Reactivity in Healthy Women

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.2049 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. S165-S166 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Marini ◽

C. Turchi ◽

E. Skrami ◽

R. Gesuita ◽

M. Giordani ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Personality Development ◽

Personal Meaning ◽

Personality Profile ◽

Individual Level ◽

Qualitative Variables ◽

Quantile Regression Analysis ◽

Competing Interest

IntroductionReactivity to acute psychosocial stress in the framework of a physiological multidimensional pattern affects several individual-level systems that include genetic factors and features related to personality development. The 5-HTTLPR genotype has been implicated in the modulation of susceptibility to environmental stimuli.ObjectivesIn the present study, 91 healthy young women were investigated (i) for their reactivity to a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor (TSST), as measured by changes in salivary cortisol; (ii) in terms of 5-httlpr genotype and (iii) in terms of their personality profile according to the post-rationalist personal meaning organizations (PMOs), which are considered as adaptive modes of response to environmental stressors.MethodsParticipants were divided into three 5-HTTLPR genotype groups (s/s; s/l, and l/s). The quantitative and qualitative variables that may affect circulating cortisol were compared among the three groups. A multiple linear quantile regression analysis was then performed to evaluate the effect of the personality profile, as Outward/Inward PMO, and 5-HTTLPR genotype on the median level of cortisol, considered as dependent variable.ResultsComparison of the variables that may affect circulating cortisol no significant differences. Salivary cortisol changed significantly in the course of the TSST. Reactivity to stress was affected by personality profile and the 5-HTTLPR genotype and also by body mass index and age.ConclusionsThe present data suggest that the psychosocial stress response is a multidimensional physiological event that is affected by a variety of factors as diverse as 5-HTTLPR genotype, personality profile, BMI, and age.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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Cortisol and Subjective Stress Responses to Acute Psychosocial Stress in Fibromyalgia Patients and Control Participants

Psychosomatic Medicine ◽

10.1097/psy.0000000000000551 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 80 (3) ◽

pp. 317-326 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Eline Coppens ◽

Stefan Kempke ◽

Peter Van Wambeke ◽

Stephan Claes ◽

Bart Morlion ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Subjective Stress ◽

And Control ◽

Acute Psychosocial Stress

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Stress Reactivity: What Pushes Us Higher, Faster, and Longer—and Why It Matters

Current Directions in Psychological Science ◽

10.1177/0963721420949521 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (5) ◽

pp. 492-498

Author(s):

Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser ◽

Megan E. Renna ◽

M. Rosie Shrout ◽

Annelise A. Madison

Keyword(s):

Stress Responses ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Physiological Stress ◽

Social Evaluation ◽

Daily Stressors ◽

Early Life Adversity ◽

Individual Level ◽

Physiological Dysregulation ◽

Acute Responses ◽

Immune Changes

Brief everyday stressors can provoke cardiovascular, hormonal, and immune changes, and the magnitude and duration of these responses can vary considerably. Acute responses to daily stressors can differ widely among individuals experiencing the same stressor, and these physiological responses may not align with stress appraisals. This review highlights individual and dyadic factors that may heighten and prolong stress reactivity, along with their implications for health. We discuss depression, rumination, early life adversity, and social evaluation as individual-level factors and interpersonal stress processes and relationship quality as dyadic-level factors that may influence physiological stress responses. Heightened and prolonged stress reactivity can provide a gateway to the physiological dysregulation that underlies depression and chronic disease, which themselves alter stress reactivity—a vicious cycle. Interventions that may dampen physiological stress reactivity include yoga, meditation, health behaviors (diet, exercise, and sleep), and cognitive behavior therapy.

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