title: Stress reactivity and corticolimbic response to emotional faces in adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Adolescence is a critical period in the development of lifelong patterns of responding to stress. Understanding underpinnings of variations in stress reactivity in adolescents is important, as adolescents with altered stress reactivity are vulnerable to negative risk-taking behaviors including substance use, and have increased lifelong risk for psychopathology. Although both endocrinological and corticolimbic neural system mechanisms are implicated in the development of stress reactivity patterns, the roles of these systems and interactions between the systems in reactivity to social stimuli in adolescents are not clear. We investigated the relationship between cortisol response to a laboratory-based social stressor and regional brain responses to emotional face stimuli in adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Changes in cortisol levels following the Trier Social Stress Test-Child version (TSST-C) were measured in 23 disadvantaged and chronically stressed adolescents who also participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging during processing of emotional faces and structural magnetic resonance imaging. The relationships between changes in cortisol following the TSST-C with regional brain activation during face processing, as well as with regional brain morphology, were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cortisol change on the TSST-C showed a significant inverse relationship with left hippocampus response to fearful faces (p < .05, corrected); significant associations with volume were not observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increased cortisol response to the Trier social stressor was associated with diminished response of the left hippocampus to faces depicting fear. This suggests that HPA-corticolimbic system mechanisms may underlie vulnerability to maladaptive responses to stress in adolescents that may contribute to development of stress-related disorders.
authors.affiliation: Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tara M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Chaplin
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rajita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Linda C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Mayes
authors.forename: Hilary P
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Blumberg
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005790:General Adaptation Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D008032:Limbic System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010553:Personality Development; D010913:Pituitary-Adrenal System / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone