van Marle et al.

, 2010

Enhanced resting-state connectivity of amygdala

in the immediate aftermath of acute
psychological stress
Shelby Rivers
11/2/17
 The amygdala is the center of the
stress response network including the
anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex,
and the locus coeruleus.
While previous studies had
investigated stress response in this
system, little research had focused on
Background the behavior of this system following
acute stress.

Specifically, is there increased

communication within this network
following acute stress?
 LC: synthesis of
norepinephrine;
arousal and stress

ACC: pain,
Seed Analysis consciousness,
ROIs motivation

AI: emotional
experiences,
pain, awareness
 Why does it matter?
The stress network activation during
the period of time following acute
stress is theoretically important for
understanding traumatic responses to
severe stress, which may partially
stem from continued activation of this
network past the point of being
adaptive (Krystal & Neumeister, 2009).
 Participants
29 women, age 18-25
No psychological disorders
No history of violent media use or
trauma
All on oral contraceptives and in same
phase of cycle
Randomly (but not blindly) assigned
to acute stress or control groups

Completed personality
questionnaires (STAI and Big 5 - no
differences between groups)
 Following stress induction, 8 minutes of fMRI (3T)
Salivary cortisol (multiple measurements)
Heart rate (frequency, variability)
Measures Affect (PANAS; multiple measurements)
Eye-tracking (to ensure attention)
Structural fMRI scan
 Stress Induction Stress was induced by showing four clips from Irreversible
(2002, dir. Gaspar No)
Irreversible is a movie Graphic scenes of violence, both sexual and otherwise
so violent and cruel Controls viewed clips from another film matched on length,
that most people will language, luminance, and face focus
find it unwatchable. Readings before each clip were used to encourage
Roger Ebert participants to experience the movie as eyewitnesses
Procedure
 Analyses
fMRI seed region analysis
Pre-existing anatomical mask of amygdala used; other regions
defined by atlas (LC more complicated)

Amygdala time course for each participant correlated with ROIs

(along with rest of brain)

SPM5: statistical parametric mapping, independent samples t-test

Small volume correction used for FWE
 No differences at baseline for any physiological, personality measure
Was the Heart rate frequency higher at all and variability higher at most time
manipulation points for stress group

successful? Cortisol higher for stress group only after first movie clip
Negative affect higher for stress group during and immediately after
clips
 fMRI Results

1 2 3
Many areas functionally When comparing Other results, p < .001,
related to amygdala in groups, enhanced uncorrected, enhanced
both groups, including amygdala connectivity coupling with superior
hippocampus, ACC, with dorsal ACC, temporal gyrus and
insula, brainstem, and anterior insula, and area other insula areas, but no
others. thought to be locus a priori hypotheses
coeruleus. about this.
 In conclusion, there does appear to be continued co-
activation of networks related to motivation, emotion,
and vigilance several minutes after the induction of
acute stress.
Conclusions This suggests that, following incidents of acute stress,
functional vigilance persists for some time. The
adaptive function of this network may be to process the
stress incident, to detect other threats, or both.
 This research emphasizes the importance of
considering the connectivity of multiple brain
structures within systems when examining complex
responses.
Some relevant findings since 2010:
1. Resting state amygdala functional connectivity with the
insula and ACC differs between veterans with PTSD
and those without (Sripada et al., 2012)
Conclusions 2. Increases in amygdala connectivity with areas like the
cingulate cortex following acute stress were found
after inducing psychosocial stress in healthy men
(Veer et al., 2011)
3. Amygdala connectivity to the ventral striatum, insula,
and other areas was found to be predictive of
childhood anxiety (Qin et al., 2014)
What were some of the weaknesses of this study?
What are some of its strengths?
Is dynamic functional connectivity (as measured using fMRI) an
adequate measure of the authors hypotheses?
Why or why not?
Limitations
What did you think of the experimental manipulation?
Is watching a distressing film enough to induce acute stress?
Can we infer information about responses to traumatic stress
based on this study, as the authors suggest?
What are your thoughts on their perspective-taking activity?
The authors suggest that continued activation of this
hypervigilance network due to extensive stress or
genetic predisposition could be the mechanism for
traumatic responses to stress. What are your thoughts on
this?
What would be the clinical implications of this finding, if
supported by other research? Implications
One adaptive function of this network as suggested by
the authors is to enhance the consolidation of stressful
memories. Why would this be adaptive?
What other research would you like to see examining
this?
Thank you!