title: Perceived Occupational Stress is associated with Decreased Cortical Activity of the Prefrontal Cortex: A Multichannel Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study.
abstract: Despite an increasing number of reports on the associations between chronic occupational stress and structural and functional changes of the brain, the underlying neural correlates of perceived occupational stress is still not clear. Perceived stress reflects the extents to which situations are appraised as stressful at a given point in one's life. Using near-infrared spectroscopy, we investigated the associations between perceived occupational stress and cortical activity over the bilateral frontotemporal regions during a verbal fluency test. Sixty-eight participants (17 men, 51 women), 20-62 years of age were recruited. Perceived occupational stress was measured using the Chinese version of Job Content Questionnaire, and the Chinese version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. We found statistically significant negative associations between occupational burnout and brain cortical activity over the fronto-polar and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during the VFT (r = -0.343 to -0.464). In conclusion, our research demonstrated a possible neural basis of perceived occupational stress that are distributed across the prefrontal cortex.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Photonics, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.|Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Po-Han
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wei-Hao
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|School of Nursing, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chao-An
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Cognition and Aging Center, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chiung-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wan-Rung
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.|Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsuo-Hung
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: Chia-Yi branch, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Chiayi City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Min-Wei
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000073397:Occupational Stress / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*