Share：
Share this content in WeChat
X
[Chinese][PDF]80791
• Review •
The neural mechanism underlying perceived stress: evidence from psych-magnetic resonance imaging
ZHANG Lei  GU Jianling  CHEN Ziqi  WANG Song  GONG Qiyong 

Cite this article as: Zhang L, Gu JL, Chen ZQ, et al. The neural mechanism underlying perceived stress: evidence from psych-magnetic resonance imaging. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2020, 11(1): 66-70. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.01.015.


[Abstract] Perceived stress refers to the extent to which situations in one's life were estimated as stressful, reflecting an individual's subjective perception and evaluation for stressors. Previous studies have shown that higher perceived stress increases the risk of physical disease and psychological disorder. In recent years, using magnetic resonance imaging technology to explore the neural mechanism of perceived stress, researchers have obtained significant results. On the one hand, higher perceived stress was not only associated with decreased volume in the prefrontal cortex and its local brain regions (including the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex) and the hippocampus, but it also associated with increased volume in amygdala. On the other hand, higher perceived stress was associated with abnormal activation and functional connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, subgenual anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala. Among them, the synergy between the anterior cingulate cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex and the regions of the limbic system (hippocampus and amygdala) in the processing of perceived stress might be an important neural basis for perceived stress.
[Keywords] perceived stress；prefrontal cortex；hippocampus；amygdala；magnetic resonance imaging technology

ZHANG Lei Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Department of Sociality and Paychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

GU Jianling Department of Sociality and Paychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

CHEN Ziqi Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China

WANG Song* Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Department of Sociality and Paychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

GONG Qiyong Huaxi MR Research Center, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China; Department of Sociality and Paychology, School of Public Administration, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China

*Corresponding to: Wang S, E-mail: wangs_psych@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS  This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China No. 31800963 the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation No. 2019M653421
Received  2019-08-26
Accepted  2019-11-23
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.01.015
Cite this article as: Zhang L, Gu JL, Chen ZQ, et al. The neural mechanism underlying perceived stress: evidence from psych-magnetic resonance imaging. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2020, 11(1): 66-70. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2020.01.015.

[1]
Selye H. Thymus and adrenals in the response of the organism to injuries and intoxications. Br J Exp Pathol, 1936, 17(3): 234-248.
[2]
Cohen S, Kamarck T, Mermelstein R. A global measure of perceived stress. J Health Soc Behav, 1983, 24(4): 385-396.
[3]
McEwen BS. Physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. Physiol Rev, 2007, 87(3): 873-904.
[4]
McEwen BS, Gianaros PJ. Central role of the brain in stress and adaptation: links to socioeconomic status, health, and disease. In N. E. Adler & J. Stewart (Eds.), Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2010, 1186(1):190-222.
[5]
Racic M, Todorovic R, Ivkovic N, et al. Self-perceived stress in relation to anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life among health professions students: a cross-sectional study from bosnia and herzegovina. Zdr Varst, 2017, 56(4): 251-259.
[6]
Streit F, Memic A, Hasandedic L, et al. Perceived stress and hair cortisol: differences in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2016, 69: 26-34.
[7]
Lagana L, Reger SL. A pilot study on perceived stress and PTSD symptomatology in relation to four dimensions of older women's physical health. Aging Mental Health, 2009, 13(6): 885-893.
[8]
Aghaei M, Ghorbani N, Rostami R, et al. Comparison of anger management, anxiety and perceived stress in patients with cancer and Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). J Med Life, 2015, 8(4): 97-101.
[9]
Aggarwal NT, Clark CJ, Beck TL, et al. Perceived stress is associated with subclinical cerebrovascular disease in older adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry, 2014, 22(1): 53-62.
[10]
Gallo LC, Roesch SC, Fortmann AL, et al. Associations of chronic stress burden, perceived stress, and traumatic stress with cardiovascular disease prevalence and risk factors in the Hispanic Community Health Study/study of latinos sociocultural ancillary study. Psychosom Med, 2014, 76(6): 468-475.
[11]
Lazarus RS, DeLongis A. Psychological stress and coping in aging. Am Psychol, 1983, 38(3): 245-254.
[12]
Treadway MT, Buckholtz JW, Zald DH. Perceived stress predicts altered reward and loss feedback processing in medial prefrontal cortex. Front Hum Neurosci, 2013, 7: 1-10.
[13]
Zhang Y, Peters A, Chen G. Perceived stress mediates the associations between sleep quality and symptoms of anxiety and depression among college nursing students. Int J Nurs Educ Scholarsh, 2018, 15(1). DOI:
[14]
Herman JP, Ostrander MM, Mueller NK, et al. Limbic system mechanisms of stress regulation: hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry, 2005, 29(8): 1201-1213.
[15]
Moreno GL, Bruss J, Denburg NL. Increased perceived stress is related to decreased prefrontal cortex volumes among older adults. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol, 2017, 39(4): 313-325.
[16]
Rubin LH, Meyer VJ, Conant RJ, et al. Prefrontal cortical volume loss is associated with stress-related deficits in verbal learning and memory in HIV-infected women. Neurobiol Dis, 2016, 92(Pt B): 166-174.
[17]
Gianaros PJ, Jennings JR, Sheu LK, et al. Prospective reports of chronic life stress predict decreased grey matter volume in the hippocampus. Neuroimage, 2007, 35(2): 795-803.
[18]
Blix E, Perski A, Berglund H, et al. Long-term occupational stress is associated with regional reductions in brain tissue volumes. PLoS One, 2013, 8(6): e64065.
[19]
Savic I. Structural changes of the brain in relation to occupational stress. Cereb Cortex, 2015, 25(6): 1554-1564.
[20]
Michalski LJ, Demers CH, Baranger DA, et al. Perceived stress is associated with increased rostral middle frontal gyrus cortical thickness: a family-based and discordant-sibling investigation. Genes Brain Behav, 2017, 16(8): 781-789.
[21]
Maier SU, Makwana AB, Hare TA. Acute stress impairs self-control in goal-directed choice by altering multiple functional connections within the brain's decision circuits. Neuron, 2015, 87(3): 621-631.
[22]
Wang J, Rao H, Wetmore GS, et al. Perfusion functional MRI reveals cerebral blood flow pattern under psychological stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2005, 102(49): 17804-17809.
[23]
Figueiredo HF, Bruestle A, Bodie B, et al. The medial prefrontal cortex differentially regulates stress-induced c-fos expression in the forebrain depending on type of stressor. Eur J Neurosci, 2003, 18(8): 2357-2364.
[24]
Enzi B, de Greck M, Prosch U, et al. Is our self nothing but reward? Neuronal overlap and distinction between reward and personal relevance and its relation to human personality. PLoS One, 2009, 4(12): e8429.
[25]
Arnsten AF, Raskind M, Taylor FB, et al. The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex: translating basic research into successful treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. Neurobiol Stress, 2015, 1: 89-99.
[26]
Fuchs E, Flugge G. Chronic social stress: effects on limbic brain structures. Physiol Behav, 2003, 79(3): 417-427.
[27]
Jacobson L, Sapolsky R. The role of the hippocampus in feedback regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis. Endocr Rev, 1991, 12(2): 118-134.
[28]
Zimmerman ME, Ezzati A, Katz MJ, et al. Perceived stress is differentially related to hippocampal subfield volumes among older adults. PLoS One, 2016, 11(5): e0154530.
[29]
Piccolo LR, Noble KG. Perceived stress is associated with smaller hippocampal volume in adolescence. Psychophysiology, 2018, 55(5): 1-10.
[30]
Burkert NT, Koschutnig K, Ebner F, et al. Structural hippocampal alterations, perceived stress, and coping deficiencies in patients with anorexia nervosa. Int J Eat Disord, 2015, 48(6): 670-676.
[31]
Lindgren L, Bergdahl J, Nyberg L. Longitudinal evidence for smaller hippocampus volume as a vulnerability factor for perceived stress. Cereb Cortex, 2016, 26(8): 3527-3533.
[32]
Zannas AS, McQuoid DR, Payne ME, et al. Negative life stress and longitudinal hippocampal volume changes in older adults with and without depression. J Psychiatr Res, 2013, 47(6): 829-834.
[33]
Kogler L, Gur RC, Derntl B. Sex differences in cognitive regulation of psychosocial achievement stress: brain and behavior. Hum Brain Mapp, 2015, 36(3): 1028-1042.
[34]
Van Rooij SJ, Kennis M, Sjouwerman R, et al. Smaller hippocampal volume as a vulnerability factor for the persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychol Med, 2015, 45(13): 2737-2746.
[35]
Tottenham N, Sheridan MA. A review of adversity, the amygdala and the hippocampus: a consideration of developmental timing. Front Hum Neurosci, 2009, 3: 68.
[36]
Lupien SJ, Evans A, Lord C, et al. Hippocampal volume is as variable in young as in older adults: implications for the notion of hippocampal atrophy in humans. Neuroimage, 2007, 34(2): 479-485.
[37]
Abdulkadir A, Ronneberger O, Wolf RC, et al. Functional and structural MRI biomarkers to detect pre-clinical neurodegeneration. Curr Alzheimer Res, 2013, 10(2): 125-134.
[38]
Murphy FC, Smith NI, Lawrence AD. Functional neuroanatomy of emotions: a meta-analysis. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci, 2003, 3(3): 207-233.
[39]
Holzel BK, Carmody J, Evans KC, et al. Stress reduction correlates with structural changes in the amygdala. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 2010, 5(1): 11-17.
[40]
Baeken C, Schuerbeek VP, Raedt DR, et al. Stress sensitive healthy females show less left amygdala activation in response to withdrawal-related visual stimuli under passive viewing conditions. Brain Cogn, 2012, 80(2): 230-236.
[41]
Gianaros PJ, Sheu LK, Matthews KA, et al. Individual differences in stressor-evoked blood pressure reactivity vary with activation, volume, and functional connectivity of the amygdala. J Neurosci, 2008, 28(4): 990-999.
[42]
Urry HL, van Reekum CM, Johnstone T, et al. Amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex are inversely coupled during regulation of negative affect and predict the diurnal pattern of cortisol secretion among older adults. J Neurosci, 2006, 26(16): 4415-4425.
[43]
Taren AA, Gianaros PJ, Greco CM, et al. Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci, 2015, 10(12): 1758-1768.
[44]
Wu J, Geng X, Shao R, et al. Neurodevelopmental changes in the relationship between stress perception and prefrontal-amygdala functional circuitry. Neuroimage Clin, 2018, 20: 267-274.
[45]
Vogt BA. Pain and emotion interactions in subregions of the cingulate gyrus. Nat Rev Neurosci, 2005, 6(7): 533-544.
[46]
MacLullich AM, Ferguson KJ, Wardlaw JM, et al. Smaller left anterior cingulate cortex volumes are associated with impaired hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis regulation in healthy elderly men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2006, 91(4): 1591-1594.
[47]
Phillips ML, Drevets WC, Rauch SL, et al. Neurobiology of emotion perception II: Implications for major psychiatric disorders. Biol Psychiatry, 2003, 54(5): 515-528.
[48]
Gianaros PJ, Hariri AR, Sheu LK, et al. Preclinical atherosclerosis covaries with individual differences in reactivity and functional connectivity of the amygdala. Biol Psychiatry, 2009, 65(11): 943-950.
[49]
Ghashghaei HT, Barbas H. Pathways for emotion: interactions of prefrontal and anterior temporal pathways in the amygdala of the rhesus monkey. Neuroscience, 2002, 115(4): 1261-1279.
[50]
Taylor SE, Burklund LJ, Eisenberger NI, et al. Neural bases of moderation of cortisol stress responses by psychosocial resources. J Pers Soc Psychol, 2008, 95(1): 197-211.
[51]
Compas BE. Psychobiological processes of stress and coping: implications for resilience in children and adolescents--comments on the papers of Romeo & McEwen and Fisher et al. In B. M. Lester, A. S. Masten, & B. McEwen (Eds.), Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2006, 1094: 226-234.
[52]
Eisenberger NI, Taylor SE, Gable SL, et al. Neural pathways link social support to attenuated neuroendocrine stress responses. Neuroimage, 2007, 35(4): 1601-1612.
[53]
Abshire M, Russell SD, Davidson PM, et al. Social support moderates the relationship between perceived stress and quality of life in patients with a left ventricular assist device. J Cardiovasc Nurs, 2018, 33(5): 1-9.
[54]
Bi Y, Ma L, Yuan F, et al. Self-Esteem, perceived Stress, and gender during adolescence: interactive links to different types of interpersonal relationships. J Psychol, 2016, 150(1): 36-57.
[55]
Chen Y, Peng Y, Ma X, et al. Conscientiousness moderates the relationship between perceived stress and depressive symptoms among U.S. Chinese older adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 2017, 72(Suppl. 1): 108-112.
[56]
Liston C, McEwen BS, Casey BJ. Psychosocial stress reversibly disrupts prefrontal processing and attentional control. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2009, 106(3): 912-917.
[57]
He Y, Evans A. Graph theoretical modeling of brain connectivity. Curr Opin Neurol, 2010, 23(4): 341-350.
[58]
Rubinov M, Sporns O. Complex network measures of brain connectivity: uses and interpretations. Neuroimage, 2010, 52(3): 1059-1069.

PREV The neuroimaging progress of insomnia disorder
NEXT Advances in magnetic resonance technology for idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus
  


LINK


Tel & Fax: +8610-67113815    E-mail: editor@cjmri.cn