TY - JOUR
T1 - The double-edged sword of the hippocampus-ventromedial prefrontal cortex resting-state connectivity in stress susceptibility and resilience
T2 - A prospective study
AU - Chang, Jingjing
AU - Song, Di
AU - Yu, Rongjun
N1 - We acknowledge Natural Scientific Foundation of China (No. 32100873 ) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2072021132 ) to J. Chang for financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/11
Y1 - 2023/11
N2 - The hippocampus has long been considered a pivotal region implicated in both stress susceptibility and resilience. A wealth of evidence from animal and human studies underscores the significance of hippocampal functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in these stress-related processes. However, there remains a scarcity of research that explores and contrasts the roles of hippocampus-vmPFC connectivity in stress susceptibility and resilience when facing a real-life traumatic event from a prospective standpoint. In the present study, we investigated the contributions of undirected and directed connectivity between the hippocampus and vmPFC to stress susceptibility and resilience within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings revealed that the left hippocampus-left vmPFC connectivity prior to the pandemic exhibited a negative correlation with both stress susceptibility and resilience. Specifically, individuals with stronger left hippocampus-left vmPFC connectivity reported experiencing fewer stress-related feelings during the outbreak period of the epidemic but displayed lower levels of stress resilience five months later. Our application of spectral dynamic causal modeling unveiled an additional inhibitory connectivity pathway from the left hippocampus to the left vmPFC in the context of stress susceptibility, which was notably absent in stress resilience. Furthermore, we observed a noteworthy positive association between self-inhibition of the vmPFC and stress susceptibility, with this effect proving substantial enough to predict an individual's susceptibility to stress; conversely, these patterns did not manifest in the realm of stress resilience. These findings enrich our comprehension of stress susceptibility and stress resilience and might have implications for innovative approaches to managing stress-related disorders.
AB - The hippocampus has long been considered a pivotal region implicated in both stress susceptibility and resilience. A wealth of evidence from animal and human studies underscores the significance of hippocampal functional connectivity with the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in these stress-related processes. However, there remains a scarcity of research that explores and contrasts the roles of hippocampus-vmPFC connectivity in stress susceptibility and resilience when facing a real-life traumatic event from a prospective standpoint. In the present study, we investigated the contributions of undirected and directed connectivity between the hippocampus and vmPFC to stress susceptibility and resilience within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings revealed that the left hippocampus-left vmPFC connectivity prior to the pandemic exhibited a negative correlation with both stress susceptibility and resilience. Specifically, individuals with stronger left hippocampus-left vmPFC connectivity reported experiencing fewer stress-related feelings during the outbreak period of the epidemic but displayed lower levels of stress resilience five months later. Our application of spectral dynamic causal modeling unveiled an additional inhibitory connectivity pathway from the left hippocampus to the left vmPFC in the context of stress susceptibility, which was notably absent in stress resilience. Furthermore, we observed a noteworthy positive association between self-inhibition of the vmPFC and stress susceptibility, with this effect proving substantial enough to predict an individual's susceptibility to stress; conversely, these patterns did not manifest in the realm of stress resilience. These findings enrich our comprehension of stress susceptibility and stress resilience and might have implications for innovative approaches to managing stress-related disorders.
KW - Hippocampus
KW - Stress resilience
KW - Stress susceptibility
KW - Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85175232914&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100584
DO - 10.1016/j.ynstr.2023.100584
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85175232914
SN - 2352-2895
VL - 27
JO - Neurobiology of Stress
JF - Neurobiology of Stress
M1 - 100584
ER -
