Amygdala size varies with stress perception

• Published in: Neurobiology of stress Vol. 14; p. 100334
• Main Authors: Caetano, Inês, Amorim, Liliana, Soares, José Miguel, Ferreira, Sónia, Coelho, Ana, Reis, Joana, Santos, Nadine Correia, Moreira, Pedro Silva, Marques, Paulo, Magalhães, Ricardo, Esteves, Madalena, Picó-Pérez, Maria, Sousa, Nuno
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.05.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Amygdala; FreeSurfer; Healthy subjects; Original; Perceived stress; Voxel-based morphometry; VBM; PSS10; Amygdala; GM; Voxel-based morphometry; Perceived stress; FreeSurfer; ROI; M; SD; TFCE; eTIV; WM; Healthy subjects; FWE-R; FSL; WM, White matter; eTIV, Estimated total intracranial volume; FWE-R, Family-wise error rate; ROI, Region-of-interest; TFCE, Threshold-free cluster enhancement; PSS10, 10-items Perceived Stress Scale; FSL, FMRIB Software Library; VBM, Voxel-based morphometry; GM, Gray matter; M, Mean; SD, Standard deviation
• ISSN: 2352-2895; 2352-2895
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100334

Stress is inevitably linked to life. It has many and complex facets. Notably, perception of stressful stimuli is an important factor when mounting stress responses and measuring its impact. Indeed, moved by the increasing number of stress-triggered pathologies, several groups drew on advanced neuroimaging techniques to explore stress effects on the brain. From that, several regions and circuits have been linked to stress, and a comprehensive integration of the distinct findings applied to common individuals is being pursued, but with conflicting results. Herein, we performed a volumetric regression analysis using participants’ perceived stress as a variable of interest. Data shows that increased levels of perceived stress positively associate with the right amygdala and anterior hippocampal volumes. •Discrepant stress effects on morphology are reported in the literature.•Stress definition and analysis software are the main causes of conflicting findings.•Psychological measures and multi-technique analysis are highly recommended.•We found that perceived stress positively associates with right amygdala volumes.