ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2010
Medial prefrontal cortex damage affects physiological and psychological stress responses differently in men and women.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Quantitative meta-analysis of heart rate variability finds reduced parasympathetic cardiac tone in women compared to men during laboratory-based social stress.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review.Revista brasileira de psiquiatria (Sao Paulo, Brazil : 1999) · 2019Pooled it
- The Association Between Childhood Trauma and Prodromal Psychotic Symptoms in Nursing Undergraduates: Mediating Roles of Depression and Anxiety.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Article
- Left ventromedial prefrontal cortex inhibitory rTMS as an anti-stress intervention in opioid use disorder: Trial design.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
- Anterior communicating aneurysm clipping: How I do it.Acta neurochirurgica · 2025Review
- Prefrontal cortex activation under stress as a function of borderline personality disorder in female adolescents engaging in non-suicidal self-injury.BJPsych open · 2024Article
- Brain correlates and functional connectivity linking stress, autonomic dysregulation, and alcohol motivation.Neurobiology of stress · 2024Article
- Central stress pathways in the development of cardiovascular disease.Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society · 2024Review
- Effectiveness of Child-Focused Interventions for Externalizing Behavior: a Rapid Evidence Review.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2022Review
- Effects of Changes in Environmental Color Chroma on Heart Rate Variability and Stress by Gender.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- A meta-analysis of salivary cortisol responses in the Trier Social Stress Test to evaluate the effects of speech topics, sex, and sample size.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Article
- Autonomic Neural Circuit and Intervention for Comorbidity Anxiety and Cardiovascular Disease.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
- Anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation reduces heart rate and modulates heart-rate variability in healthy young people: A randomized cross-controlled trial.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
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- Microstates in complex and dynamical environments: Unraveling situational awareness in critical helicopter landing maneuvers.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Coordination between frontolimbic resting state connectivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning in adolescents with and without depression.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2021Article
- Hippocampal seed connectome-based modeling predicts the feeling of stress.Nature communications · 2020Article
- A common neural substrate for elevated PTSD symptoms and reduced pulse rate variability in combat-exposed veterans.Psychophysiology · 2020Article
- Heart rate variability biofeedback intero-nociceptive emotion exposure therapy for adverse childhood experiences.F1000Research · 2020Article
- Sex Differences in Stress Reactivity to the Trier Social Stress Test in Virtual Reality.Psychology research and behavior management · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The ability to produce appropriate physiological and psychological responses to stressful situations depends on accurate recognition and appraisal of such situations. Such ability is also important for proper emotion regulation. A number of studies have suggested that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a significant role in emotion regulation, as well as in the control of physiological endpoints of emotion regulation such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS). Further, recent work has suggested that men and women may differ in these mechanisms of neural control of emotion regulation. Here, we examined the role of the human mPFC in self-report, ANS, and HPA stress reactivity by testing a group of participants with damage to this region (9 women and 9 men), a brain damaged comparison group (6 women and 6 men), and healthy comparison participants (27 women and 27 men) on an orthostatic challenge and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The mPFC participants showed heightened self-reported stress in response to the TSST. In women, mPFC damage led to an increased cortisol response to the TSST. By contrast, in men, greater volume of mPFC damage was correlated with a decreased cortisol response. Finally, men with mPFC damage showed altered autonomic control of the heart (higher heart rate and lower high frequency heart rate variability) during an orthostatic challenge. These findings support the idea that the mPFC is involved in the regulation of physiological and psychological responses to stress and that this regulation may differ between men and women.
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Registered trials
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