Increase in Beta Power Reflects Attentional Top-Down Modulation After Psychosocial Stress Induction

Selective attention depends on goal-directed and stimulus-driven modulatory factors, each relayed by different brain rhythms. Under certain circumstances, stress-related states can change the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying these changes remain unclear. In this study, we explored how psychosocial stress can modulate brain rhythms during an attentional task and a task-free period. We recorded the EEG and ECG activity of 42 healthy participants subjected to either the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a controlled procedure to induce stress, or a comparable control protocol (same physical and cognitive effort but without the stress component), flanked by an attentional task, a 90 s of task-free period and a state of anxiety questionnaire. We observed that psychosocial stress induced an increase in heart rate (HR), self-reported anxiety, and alpha power synchronization. Also, psychosocial stress evoked a relative beta power increase during correct trials of the attentional task, which correlates positively with anxiety and heart rate increase, and inversely with attentional accuracy. These results suggest that psychosocial stress affects performance by redirecting attentional resources toward internal threat-related thoughts. An increment of endogenous top-down modulation reflected an increased beta-band activity that may serve as a compensatory mechanism to redirect attentional resources toward the ongoing task. The data obtained here may contribute to designing new ways of clinical management of the human stress response in the future and could help to minimize the damaging effects of persistent stressful experiences.

Download Full-text

Does Psychosocial Stress Impact Cognitive Reappraisal? Behavioral and Neural Evidence

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01157 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (11) ◽

pp. 1803-1816 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Maheen Shermohammed ◽

Pranjal H. Mehta ◽

Joan Zhang ◽

Cassandra M. Brandes ◽

Luke J. Chang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Social Stress ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Cognitive Reappraisal ◽

Self Report ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Stress Group

Cognitive reappraisal (CR) is regarded as an effective emotion regulation strategy. Acute stress, however, is believed to impair the functioning of prefrontal-based neural systems, which could result in lessened effectiveness of CR under stress. This study tested the behavioral and neurobiological impact of acute stress on CR. While undergoing fMRI, adult participants ( n = 54) passively viewed or used CR to regulate their response to negative and neutral pictures and provided ratings of their negative affect in response to each picture. Half of the participants experienced an fMRI-adapted acute psychosocial stress manipulation similar to the Trier Social Stress Test, and a control group received parallel manipulations without the stressful components. Relative to the control group, the stress group exhibited heightened stress as indexed by self-report, heart rate, and salivary cortisol throughout the scan. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that reappraisal success was equivalent in the control and stress groups, as was electrodermal response to the pictures. Heart rate deceleration, a physiological response typically evoked by aversive pictures, was blunted in response to negative pictures and heightened in response to neutral pictures in the stress group. In the brain, we found weak evidence of stress-induced increases of reappraisal-related activity in parts of the PFC and left amygdala, but these relationships were statistically fragile. Together, these findings suggest that both the self-reported and neural effects of CR may be robust to at least moderate levels of stress, informing theoretical models of stress effects on cognition and emotion.

Download Full-text

Immediate effects of psychosocial stress on attention depend on subjective experience and not directly on stress-related physiological changes

10.1101/223909 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

I. Palacios-García ◽

M. Villena-Gonzalez ◽

G. Campos-Arteaga ◽

C. Artigas-Vergara ◽

K. Jaramillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Salivary Cortisol ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Subjective Experience ◽

Stress Test ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Physiological Changes ◽

Cortisol Levels ◽

Acute Psychosocial Stress

AbstractAcute psychosocial stress is associated with physiological, subjective and cognitive changes. In particular, attention, which is considered one of the main processes driving cognition, has been related to different stress outcomes, such as anxiety, cortisol levels and autonomic responses, individually. Nonetheless, their specific contributions to and association with attention is still not fully understood. To study this association, 42 male participants were asked to perform an attentional task just before and immediately after being exposed to either an experimental treatment designed to induce psychosocial stress using the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or a matching stress-free control condition. The salivary cortisol concentration, heart rate, and self-reported anxiety were measured to assess the physiological response to stress and the subjective experience during the protocol. As expected, psychosocial stress induced increases in heart rate, salivary cortisol levels and anxiety. The behavioral analysis revealed that members of the control group performed better on the attentional task after the protocol, while members of the TSST group showed no changes. Moreover, after dividing the stress group into sub-groups of participants with high and low anxiety, we observed that participants in the high-anxiety group not only failed to perform better but also performed worse. Finally, after testing several single-level mediation models, we found that anxiety is sufficient to explain the changes in attention and that it mediates the effects between heart rate and cortisol levels on attention. Our results suggest that the immediate effects of acute psychosocial stress on attention are highly dependent on the participant’s subjective experience, which, in turn, is affected and can mediate stress-related physiological changes.

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text

IL-6 Response to Psychosocial Stress Predicts 12-month Changes in Cardiometabolic Biomarkers in Perimenopausal Women

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ◽

10.1210/clinem/dgaa476 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 105 (10) ◽

pp. e3757-e3765

Author(s):

Anthony S Zannas ◽

Jennifer L Gordon ◽

Alan L Hinderliter ◽

Susan S Girdler ◽

David R Rubinow

Keyword(s):

Insulin Resistance ◽

Interleukin 6 ◽

Vascular Function ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Disease Risk ◽

Stress Test ◽

The United States ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Model Assessment ◽

Perimenopausal Women

Abstract Objective Cardiometabolic diseases are the number one cause of mortality, accounting for over one third of all deaths in the United States. Cardiometabolic risk further increases with psychosocial stress exposure and during menopausal transition in women. Because disease risk and stress burden are associated with aberrant immune signaling, we hypothesized that responses of interleukin-6 (IL-6) to psychosocial stress may predict longitudinal cardiometabolic outcomes in perimenopausal women. Methods We conducted post hoc analyses in 151 perimenopausal or early postmenopausal women participants in a previously completed study. At study onset, participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and plasma IL-6 was measured repeatedly before and during the 1 hour post-TSST. Subsequently, participants were randomly assigned to either hormonal treatment (HT) or placebo and followed for 12 months to determine longitudinal changes in cardiometabolic biomarkers. Results Greater IL-6 reactivity to stress, measured with baseline-adjusted area under the curve, predicted 12-month decrease in flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery (P = 0.0005), a measure of endothelial-dependent vascular function, but not in endothelial-independent function measured with nitroglycerin-mediated dilatation (P = 0.17). Greater baseline IL-6 levels predicted 12-month increase in insulin resistance based on the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance score (P = 0.0045) and in the number of criteria met for metabolic syndrome (P = 0.0008). These predictions were not moderated by HT. Conclusions Greater baseline IL-6 levels as well as its reactivity to stress may predict worsening in distinct cardiometabolic biomarkers as women transition to menopause. Interleukin-6 reactivity predicts decline in endothelial-dependent vascular function, whereas baseline IL-6 presages accumulation of metabolic risk.

Download Full-text

Kinetics and Interrelations of the Renin Aldosterone Response to Acute Psychosocial Stress: A Neglected Stress System

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ◽

10.1210/clinem/dgz190 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 105 (3) ◽

pp. e762-e773 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Angelina Gideon ◽

Christine Sauter ◽

Judy Fieres ◽

Thilo Berger ◽

Britta Renner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Plasma Aldosterone ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Placebo Control ◽

Stress System ◽

Stress Induction ◽

Acute Psychosocial Stress

Abstract Context The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in cardiovascular homeostasis and its dysfunction relates to negative health consequences. Acute psychosocial stress seems to activate the RAAS in humans, but stress kinetics and interrelations of RAAS parameters compared with a nonstress control group remain inconclusive. Objective We systematically investigated in a randomized placebo-controlled design stress kinetics and interrelations of the reactivity of RAAS parameters measured in plasma and saliva to standardized acute psychosocial stress induction. Methods 58 healthy young men were assigned to either a stress or a placebo control group. The stress group underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), while the control group underwent the placebo TSST. We repeatedly assessed plasma renin, and plasma and salivary aldosterone before and up to 3 hours after stress/placebo. We simultaneously assessed salivary cortisol to validate successful stress induction and to test for interrelations. Results Acute psychosocial stress induced significant increases in all endocrine measures compared with placebo-stress (all P ≤ .041). Highest renin levels were observed 1 minute after stress, and highest aldosterone and cortisol levels 10 and 20 minutes after stress, with salivary aldosterone starting earlier at 1 minute after stress. Renin completed recovery at 10 minutes, cortisol at 60 minutes, salivary aldosterone at 90 minutes, and plasma aldosterone at 180 minutes after stress. Stress increase scores of all endocrine measures related to each other, as did renin and cortisol areas under the curve with respect to increase (AUCi) and salivary and plasma aldosterone AUCi (all P ≤ .047). Conclusions Our findings suggest that in humans acute psychosocial stress induces a differential and interrelated RAAS parameter activation pattern. Potential implications for stress-related cardiovascular risk remain to be elucidated.

Download Full-text

Sex Differences in Endocrine and Psychological Responses to Psychosocial Stress in Healthy Elderly Subjects and the Impact of a 2-Week Dehydroepiandrosterone Treatment1

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism ◽

10.1210/jcem.83.5.4758 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 83 (5) ◽

pp. 1756-1761 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Brigitte M. Kudielka ◽

Juliane Hellhammer ◽

Dirk H. Hellhammer ◽

Oliver T. Wolf ◽

Karl-Martin Pirke ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Sex Differences ◽

Stress Responses ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Well Being ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Elderly Subjects ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Free Cortisol ◽

The Impact

Evidence from animal as well as human studies has suggested that significant sex differences exist in hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) activity. As gonadal steroids could be important modulators of HPA sex differences, stress responses were investigated in subjects of advanced age after dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) or placebo treatment. After a 2-week treatment with 50 mg DHEA daily or placebo, 75 men and women (mean age, 67.6 yr) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The TSST is a brief psychosocial stress that consists of a free speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an audience. The results show that the TSST induced significant increases in ACTH, salivary free cortisol, total plasma cortisol, norepinephrine, and heart rates (all P < 0.0001) as well as decreased positive affect in the elderly (P = 0.0009). Men showed larger stress responses in ACTH (P = 0.004), salivary free cortisol (P = 0.044), and plasma total cortisol (P = 0.076) compared to women. No sex differences were observed in norepinephrine, epinephrine, or heart rate responses. In contrast to ACTH and cortisol response differences, women reported that they were significantly more stressed by the TSST than men (P = 0.0051). Women treated with DHEA showed ACTH stress responses similar to those of men, but significantly enhanced compared to those of women taking placebos (P < 0.009). No other stress response differences emerged between DHEA and placebo groups. Finally, DHEA treatment did not result in an improvement of subjective well-being. We conclude that elderly men show larger HPA responses than women to psychosocial stress, as studied in the TSST. Estrogen effects on hypothalamic CRF-producing neurons might be responsible for these sex differences.

Download Full-text

Clinical experimental stress studies: methods and assessment

Reviews in the Neurosciences ◽

10.1515/revneuro-2015-0004 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 26 (5) ◽

pp. 555-579 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Anjana Bali ◽

Amteshwar Singh Jaggi

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Test ◽

Challenge Test ◽

Cold Pressor Test ◽

The Body ◽

Behavioral Changes ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Induce Stress ◽

Stress Assessment

AbstractStress is a state of threatened homeostasis during which a variety of adaptive processes are activated to produce physiological and behavioral changes. Stress induction methods are pivotal for understanding these physiological or pathophysiological changes in the body in response to stress. Furthermore, these methods are also important for the development of novel pharmacological agents for stress management. The well-described methods to induce stress in humans include the cold pressor test, Trier Social Stress Test, Montreal Imaging Stress Task, Maastricht Acute Stress Test, CO2 challenge test, Stroop test, Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task, noise stress, and Mannheim Multicomponent Stress Test. Stress assessment in humans is done by measuring biochemical markers such as cortisol, cortisol awakening response, dexamethasone suppression test, salivary α-amylase, plasma/urinary norepinephrine, norepinephrine spillover rate, and interleukins. Physiological and behavioral changes such as galvanic skin response, heart rate variability, pupil size, and muscle and/or skin sympathetic nerve activity (microneurography) and cardiovascular parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, and self-reported anxiety are also monitored to assess stress response. This present review describes these commonly employed methods to induce stress in humans along with stress assessment methods.

Download Full-text

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.

Download Full-text

Sex Differences in Stress Reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test in Virtual Reality

10.21203/rs.3.rs-21036/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Qing Liu ◽

Wenjuan Zhang

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Virtual Reality ◽

Sex Differences ◽

Social Stress ◽

Stress Reactivity ◽

Electrodermal Activity ◽

Stress Test ◽

Young Male ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Stress Group

Abstract Background: The aim of the present study is to investigate the sex differences in stress reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in a virtual reality(TSST-VR). Methods: Healthy young male (n = 30) and female (n = 30) undergraduates were randomly assigned to a psychosocial stress protocol (TSST) condition or to a non-stressful control condition (Placebo-TSST) under VR. Electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured throughout the study. The subjective scales of stress and emotion were also conducted. Results: The results showed that after VR, the stress group reported higher stress perceptions than the non-stress group. Compared with females, the males stronger EDA and higher HRV before the VR, and lower HR during VR as well as higher HRV after VR. The correlation between subjective and objective reactivity demonstrated that HRV during VR was negatively correlated to depression and negative affect. The HRV after VR was negatively correlated to the positive coping but was positively correlated to the depression. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the TSST-VR could be used as an available tool for testing gender differences to social stress induction in experimental settings. Compared with females, males were more sensitive to stress.

Download Full-text

Rapid volumetric brain changes after acute psychosocial stress

10.1101/2021.12.01.470604 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Marie Uhlig ◽

Janis Dominik Reinelt ◽

Mark Lauckner ◽

H. Lina Schaare ◽

Deniz Kumral ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Acute Stress ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Trier Social Stress Test ◽

Control Group ◽

Grey Matter Volume ◽

Significant Group ◽

Brain Changes ◽

Acute Psychosocial Stress

Rapid structural brain plasticity after acute stress has been shown in animals. It is unknown whether such stress-related brain changes also occur in humans, in which they have been found, using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), after motor learning and visual stimulation. We here investigated grey matter volume (GMV) changes after acute stress in humans and tested their relation to psychophysiological stress measures. Sixty-seven healthy men (25.8 +/- 2.7 years) completed a standardized psychosocial laboratory stressor (Trier Social Stress Test) or a control version while blood, saliva, heart rate, and psychometrics were sampled. T1-weighted MP2RAGE images at 3T MRI were acquired 45 min before and 90 min after intervention onset. GMV changes were analysed using voxel-based morphometry. Associations with endocrine, autonomic, and subjective stress measures were tested with linear models. We found significant group-by-time interactions in several brain clusters including anterior/mid-cingulate cortices and bilateral insula: GMV was increased in the stress group relative to the control group, in which several clusters showed a GMV decrease. We found no significant group-by-time interaction for other MRI parameters, including cerebral blood flow, but a significant association of GMV changes with state anxiety and heart rate variability changes. In summary, we show rapid GMV changes following acute psychosocial stress in humans. The results suggest that endogenous circadian brain changes are counteracted by acute stress and generally emphasize the influence of stress on the brain.

Download Full-text