An fMRI study of brain processing related to stress states

The aim of this study is to investigate whether stress states affect brain responses in the regions related to emotional and cognitive processing. The brain activities of thirty-three healthy adults divided into stress and non-stress groups according to their stress responses were assessed during emotional audio-visual stimuli using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results showed that the non-stress and stress groups had significant responses in the amygdala, hippocampus, and inferior frontal gyrus in the Pleasant and Unpleasant stimuli compared with the Relaxed stimuli, although no significant differences of activation was indicated in these regions between the non-stress and stress groups in each stimulus. Moreover, activation of superior and inferior parietal gyri in the non-stress group significantly increased in the Pleasant and/or Unpleasant stimuli compared with those in the stress group. These results suggest that the brain regions involved in emotional processing were activated in healthy adults with and without stress, while the brain regions involved in cognitive processing showed reduced activity in high-stress holders compared with the low-stress holders.