ArticleHuman brain mapping2015
Dissociated neural effects of cortisol depending on threat escapability.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between brain activity and endogenous and exogenous cortisol - A systematic review.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2020Pooled it
- Testosterone, cortisol, and fNIRS-based cortical activation associated with competitive task persistence and difficulty.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Aggressive and psychopathic traits are linked to the acquisition of stable but imprecise hostile expectations.Translational psychiatry · 2023Article
- Anticipated Attack Slows Responses in a Cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task.Europe's journal of psychology · 2021Article
- Controllability over stressor decreases responses in key threat-related brain areas.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Understanding Brain Mechanisms of Reactive Aggression.Current psychiatry reports · 2020Review
- Beyond the challenge hypothesis: The emergence of the dual-hormone hypothesis and recommendations for future research.Hormones and behavior · 2020Review
- Neural responses in the pain matrix when observing pain of others are unaffected by testosterone administration in women.Experimental brain research · 2020Article
- Article
- Freeze or Forget? Virtual Attack Effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task.Europe's journal of psychology · 2018Article
- Current Status of Animal Models of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Behavioral and Biological Phenotypes, and Future Challenges in Improving Translation.Biological psychiatry · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evolution has provided us with a highly flexible neuroendocrine threat system which, depending on threat imminence, switches between active escape and passive freezing. Cortisol, the "stress-hormone", is thought to play an important role in both fear behaviors, but the exact mechanisms are not understood. Using pharmacological functional magnetic resonance imaging we investigated how cortisol modulates the brain's fear systems when humans are under virtual-predator attack. We show dissociated neural effects of cortisol depending on whether escape from threat is possible. During inescapable threat cortisol reduces fear-related midbrain activity, whereas in anticipation of active escape cortisol boosts activity in the frontal salience network (insula and anterior cingulate cortex), which is involved in autonomic control, visceral perception and motivated action. Our findings suggest that cortisol adjusts the human neural threat system from passive fear to active escape, which illuminates the hormone's crucial role in the adaptive flexibility of fear behaviors.
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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.