Increased Risk Taking in Relation to Chronic Stress in Adults

Chronic stress is a public health problem that affects a significant part of the population. While the physiological damage it causes is under ongoing scrutiny, its behavioral effects have been overlooked. This is one of the first studies to examine the relation between chronic stress and decision-making, using a standard lottery paradigm. We measured learning-independent risk taking in the gain domain through binary choices between financially incentivized lotteries. We then measured self-reported chronic stress with the Trier Inventory for the Assessment of Chronic Stress (TICS). We additionally collected hair samples in a subsample of volunteers, in order to quantify chronic cortisol exposure. We discovered a significant, positive correlation between self-reported chronic stress and risk taking that is stronger for women than for men. This confirms part of the findings in acute stress research that show a connection between higher stress and increased risk taking. However, unlike the biologically-based results from acute stress research, we did not identify a significant relation between hair cortisol and behavior. In line with previous literature, we found a clear gender difference in risk taking and self-reports: women generally take less risk and report slightly higher stress levels than men. We conclude that perceived chronic stress can impact behavior in risky situations

How stressful are economic competitions in the lab? An investigation with physiological measures

Competition is ubiquitous in economic life. Yet, negative consequences of competitive environments have been reported and everyday experience suggests that competitive situations can be very stressful. It is, however, an open question whether or not economic competitions in the laboratory indeed elicit physiological stress reactions. Our study examined the subjectively perceived stress and the physiological changes induced by a well-established economic laboratory competition paradigm (first used in Niederle and Vesterlund 2007) in a mixed-gender sample of 105 healthy participants. A mental arithmetic task was performed first under a piece rate (i.e., non-competitive) payment scheme and afterwards under a tournament condition. In a third round, participants decided how to be paid (i.e., piece rate or tournament). Our results indicate that compared to a control group, which performed only the non-competitive condition, the competitive game condition indeed elicited subjective and physiological reactions that are indicative of mild stress. Furthermore, reactions that are thought to reflect an active coping style were related to the self-selection into competition in the third round of the game. We speculate that real-life economic competitions might be even stronger stressors and the way how people cope with this kind of stress might be related to competitiveness in real-life economic contexts

Associations between cortisol stress responses and limbic volume and thickness in young adults: an exploratory study

The investigation of the relationship between neural measures of limbic structures and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis responses to acute stress exposure in healthy young adults has so far focused in particular on task-based and resting state functional connectivity studies. Thus, the present study examined the association between limbic volume and thickness measures and acute cortisol responses to the psychosocial stress paradigm ScanSTRESS. Using Permutation Analysis of Linear Models controlling for sex, age, and total brain volume, the associations between (sex-specific) cortisol increases and human connectome project style anatomical variables of limbic structures (i.e., volume and thickness) were investigated in 66 healthy and young (18-33 years) subjects (35 men, 31 women taking oral contraceptives). In addition, exploratory (sex-specific) bivariate correlations between cortisol increases and structural measures were conducted. The present data provide interesting new insights into the involvement of striato-limbic structures in psychosocial stress processing, suggesting that acute cortisol stress responses are also associated with mere structural measures of the human brain. Thus, our pre-liminary findings suggest that not only situation- and contextdependent reactions of the limbic system (i.e., blood oxygenation level dependent reactions) are related to acute (sex-specific) cortisol stress responses, but also basal and somewhat more constant structural measures. Our study hereby paves the way for further analyses in this context and highlights the relevance of the topic

Associations between cortisol stress responses and limbic volume and thickness in young adults: An exploratory study

The investigation of the relationship between neural measures of limbic structures and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis responses to acute stress exposure in healthy young adults has so far focused in particular on task-based and resting state functional connectivity studies. Thus, the present study examined the association between limbic volume and thickness measures and acute cortisol responses to the psychosocial stress paradigm ScanSTRESS. Using Permutation Analysis of Linear Models controlling for sex, age and total brain volume, the associations between (sex-specific) cortisol increases and human connectome project style anatomical variables of limbic structures (i.e. volume and thickness) were investigated in 66 healthy and young (18–33 years) subjects (35 men, 31 women taking oral contraceptives). In addition, exploratory (sex-specific) bivariate correlations between cortisol increases and structural measures were conducted. The present data provide interesting new insights into the involvement of striato-limbic structures in psychosocial stress processing, suggesting that acute cortisol stress responses are also associated with mere structural measures of the human brain. Thus, our preliminary findings suggest that not only situation- and context-dependent reactions of the limbic system (i.e. blood oxygenation level-dependent reactions) are related to acute (sex-specific) cortisol stress responses but also basal and somewhat more constant structural measures. Our study hereby paves the way for further analyses in this context and highlights the relevance of the topic

Dissociation of behavioral and neural responses to provocation during reactive aggression in healthy adults with high versus low externalization

The externalizing spectrum describes a range of heterogeneous personality traits and behavioral patterns, primarily characterized by antisocial behavior, disinhibition, and substance (mis)use. In psychopathology, abnormalities in neural threat, reward responses and the impulse-control system may be responsible for these externalizing symptoms. Within the non-clinical range, mechanisms remain still unclear. In this fMRI-study, 61 healthy participants (31 men) from the higher versus lower range of the non-clinical variation in externalization (31 participants with high externalization) as assessed by the subscales disinhibition and meanness of the Triarchic-Psychopathy-Measure (TriPM) performed a monetary modified Taylor-Aggression-Paradigm (mTAP). This paradigm consisted of a mock competitive-reaction-time-task played against a fictional opponent with preprogrammed win- and lose-trials. In lose-trials, participants were provoked by subtraction of an amount of money between 0 and 90 cents. As a manipulation check, provocation induced a significant rise in behavioral aggression levels linked with an increased activation in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). High externalization predicted reduced ACC responses to provocation. However, high externalizing participants did not behave more aggressively than the low externalization group. Additionally, the high externalizing group showed a significantly lower positive affect while no group differences emerged for negative affect. In conclusion, high externalization in the non-clinical range was related to neural alterations in regions involved in affective decision-making as well as to changes in affect but did not lead to higher behavioral aggression levels in response to the mTAP. This is in line with previous findings suggesting that aberrations at multiple levels are essential for developing externalizing disorders

Sex-Specific Interaction Between Cortisol and Striato-Limbic Responses to Psychosocial Stress

Although women and men differ in psychological and endocrine stress responses as well as prevalence rates of stress-related disorders, knowledge on sex differences regarding stress regulation in the brain is scarce.Therefore, we performed an in-depth analysis of data from 67 healthy participants (31 women, taking oral contraceptives), who were exposed to the ScanSTRESS paradigm in an fMRI study. Changes in cortisol, affect, heart rate, and neural activation in response to psychosocial stress were examined in women and men as well as potential sex-specific interactions between stress response domains.Stress exposure led to significant cortisol increases with men exhibiting higher levels than women. Dependent on sex, cortisol elevations were differently associated with stress-related responses in striato-limbic structures: Higher increases were associated with activations in men but with deactivations in women. Regarding affect or heart rate responses, no sex differences emerged.Although women and men differ in their overall stress reactivity, our findings do not support the idea of distinct neural networks as base of this difference. Instead, we found differential stress reactions for women and men in identical structures. We propose considering quantitative predictors like sex-specific cortisol increases when exploring neural response differences of women and men

Neural responses to acute stress predict chronic stress perception in daily life over 13 months

The importance of amygdala, hippocampus, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) for the integration of neural, endocrine, and affective stress processing was shown in healthy participants and patients with stress-related disorders. The present manuscript which reports on one study-arm of the LawSTRESS project, aimed at investigating the predictive value of acute stress responses in these regions for biopsychological consequences of chronic stress in daily life. The LawSTRESS project examined law students either in preparation for their first state examination (stress group [SG]) or in the mid-phase of their study program (control group [CG]) over 13 months. Ambulatory assessments comprising perceived stress measurements and the cortisol awakening response (CAR) were administered on six sampling points (t1 = − 1 year, t2 = − 3 months, t3 = − 1 week, t4 = exam, t5 =  + 1 week, t6 =  + 1 month). In a subsample of 124 participants (SG: 61; CG: 63), ScanSTRESS was applied at baseline. In the SG but not in the CG, amygdala, hippocampus, and (post-hoc analyzed) right mPFC activation changes during ScanSTRESS were significantly associated with the trajectory of perceived stress but not with the CAR. Consistent with our finding in the total LawSTRESS sample, a significant increase in perceived stress and a blunted CAR over time could be detected in the SG only. Our findings suggest that more pronounced activation decreases of amygdala, hippocampus, and mPFC in response to acute psychosocial stress at baseline were related to a more pronounced increase of stress in daily life over the following year