SynthesisNeuroImage2015
Psychosocial versus physiological stress - Meta-analyses on deactivations and activations of the neural correlates of stress reactions.
Synthesis in NeuroImage, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neural correlates of acute task-related stress in humans: a systematic review and coordinate-based ALE meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Pooled it
- Endocannabinoids and Stress-Related Neurospsychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Basal Concentrations and Response to Acute Psychosocial Stress.Cannabis and cannabinoid research · 2024Pooled it
- The influence of stress on the neural underpinnings of disinhibited eating: a systematic review and future directions for research.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2023Pooled it
- Racism and psychosis: an umbrella review and qualitative analysis of the mental health consequences of racism.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- Do I feel or do I know? Neuroimaging meta-analyses on the multiple facets of empathy.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2020Pooled it
- The interaction of oxytocin and nicotine addiction on psychosocial stress: an fMRI study.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Neuroendocrine Response and State Anxiety Due to Psychosocial Stress Decrease after a Training with Subject's Own (but Not Another) Virtual Body: An RCT Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Altered relationship between cortisol response to social stress and mediotemporal function during fear processing in people at clinical high risk for psychosis: a preliminary report.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2022Trial
- Effects of stress-induced inflammation on reward processing in healthy young women.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2020Trial
- Acute social and physical stress interact to influence social behavior: The role of social anxiety.PloS one · 2018Trial
- Nicotine withdrawal alters neural responses to psychosocial stress.Psychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Multimodal approach to identify neuropsychophysiological subgroups in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and their relevance for rehabilitation: protocol for a mechanistic cross-sectional and longitudinal study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, perceived stress, and miscarriage risk in a cohort of US Black women.Environmental epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2026Article
- Tinnitus and tinnitus disorder: Genetic, neurobiological, and clinical differentiation.iScience · 2026Review
- Functional connectivity response to distress-inducing auditory feedback associated with short-term smoking abstinence.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Sex differences in neural stress responses over psychosocial stress exposure.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Estradiol, Emotion Regulation, and the Limbic System: Effects on Gray Matter Volume.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Association of neural responses to acute psychosocial stress with relapse in depression.Brain imaging and behavior · 2026Article
- Heightened Susceptibility to Social Exclusion in Poor Sleepers: A Resting-State fMRI Study.Brain topography · 2026Article
- The Efficacy of Forest Therapy on Negative Emotions, Oxidative Stress, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Elderly Hypertensive Patients.Anatolian journal of cardiology · 2026Article
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Stress is present in everyday life in various forms and situations. Two stressors frequently investigated are physiological and psychosocial stress. Besides similar subjective and hormonal responses, it has been suggested that they also share common neural substrates. The current study used activation-likelihood-estimation meta-analysis to test this assumption by integrating results of previous neuroimaging studies on stress processing. Reported results are cluster-level FWE corrected. The inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the anterior insula (AI) were the only regions that demonstrated overlapping activation for both stressors. Analysis of physiological stress showed consistent activation of cognitive and affective components of pain processing such as the insula, striatum, or the middle cingulate cortex. Contrarily, analysis across psychosocial stress revealed consistent activation of the right superior temporal gyrus and deactivation of the striatum. Notably, parts of the striatum appeared to be functionally specified: the dorsal striatum was activated in physiological stress, whereas the ventral striatum was deactivated in psychosocial stress. Additional functional connectivity and decoding analyses further characterized this functional heterogeneity and revealed higher associations of the dorsal striatum with motor regions and of the ventral striatum with reward processing. Based on our meta-analytic approach, activation of the IFG and the AI seems to indicate a global neural stress reaction. While physiological stress activates a motoric fight-or-flight reaction, during psychosocial stress attention is shifted towards emotion regulation and goal-directed behavior, and reward processing is reduced. Our results show the significance of differentiating physiological and psychosocial stress in neural engagement. Furthermore, the assessment of deactivations in addition to activations in stress research is highly recommended.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.