title: Social support, stress and the aging brain.
abstract: Social support benefits health and well-being in older individuals, however the mechanism remains poorly understood. One proposal, the stress-buffering hypothesis states social support 'buffers' the effects of stress on health. Alternatively, the main effect hypothesis suggests social support independently promotes health. We examined the combined association of social support and stress on the aging brain. Forty healthy older adults completed stress questionnaires, a social network interview and structural MRI to investigate the amygdala-medial prefrontal cortex circuitry, which is implicated in social and emotional processing and negatively affected by stress. Social support was positively correlated with right medial prefrontal cortical thickness while amygdala volume was negatively associated with social support and positively related to stress. We examined whether the association between social support and amygdala volume varied across stress level. Stress and social support uniquely contribute to amygdala volume, which is consistent with the health benefits of social support being independent of stress.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, ssherman@utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Stephanie M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Yen-Pi
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: Karen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Fingerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Department of Psychology.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Schnyer
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D012944:Social Support; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: aging; amygdala; psychological stress; social support