ArticleNeurobiology of stress2022
The effects of stress across the lifespan on the brain, cognition and mental health: A UK biobank study.
Article in Neurobiology of stress, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early life adversity and white matter microstructural organization-a systematic review.Brain imaging and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- Pathways from chronic stress to cognitive decline: A multi-cohort mediation analysis of inflammation and immune-related gene expression.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- A cortical insula-orbitofrontal circuit drives stress-induced dopamine system dysfunction.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Article
- From Stress to Neurodegeneration: A New Look at the Pathogenesis of Parkinson's Disease.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Lifetime stressor exposure, executive functioning, and internalizing symptoms during emerging adulthood.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Activation of 5-HT4 receptors reverses stress-induced dopamine system dysregulation.Neuropharmacology · 2026Article
- Neuroendocrine-associated epigenetic factors in cellular senescence: mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- The Association of Environmental Variables with Intelligence and Well-Being in Copy Number Variation (CNV) Carriers.Research square · 2026Article
- MASSAG model: Towards an integrative neuroscience framework linking emotional trauma, pain, and mechanisms of force-based manipulations.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Differences in cortical gyrification and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations between early- and late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN · 2026Article
- Plasma proteomics identifies proteins and pathways associated with incident epilepsy.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Article
- Stress and neurodegeneration: mechanistic insights and therapeutic opportunities for preserving brain resilience.Acta neurologica Belgica · 2025Review
- Potential vulnerability and resilience to accelerated brain aging in women exposed to stressful life events: insights from the brain age prediction model.Neurobiology of stress · 2025Article
- The effect of peer victimisation on cognitive development in childhood: evidence for mediation via inflammation.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Cumulative stressor exposure and cognitive functioning in late childhood: The role of inflammation.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2025Article
- Breathwork for Chronic Stress and Mental Health: Does Choosing a Specific Technique Matter?Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Evaluation of the Stress System in Acute and Chronic Cardiac Disease.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Social Engagement, Depressive Symptoms, and Loneliness, and Longitudinal Cognitive Decline in a Population-Based Cohort of Older Adults.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry. Open science, education, and practice · 2025Article
- Multivariate decomposition of gender differentials in cognitive impairment among older adults in India based on Longitudinal Ageing Study in India, 2017-2018.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Repeated overstimulation of the stress response system, caused by exposure to prolonged highly stressful experiences, is thought to affect brain structure, cognitive ability, and mental health. We tested the effects of highly stressful experiences during childhood and adulthood using data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale national health and biomedical study with over 500,000 participants. To do this, we defined four groups with high or low levels of childhood and/or adulthood stress. We then used T1-and diffusion-weighted MRI data to assess the macrostructure of grey matter and microstructure of white matter within limbic brain regions, commonly associated with the stress response. We also compared executive function and working memory between these groups. Our findings suggest that in females, higher levels of Childhood stress were associated with reduced connectivity within the posterior thalamic radiation and cingulum of the hippocampus. In males however, higher levels of Adulthood stress is associated with similar changes in brain microstructure in the posterior thalamic radiation and cingulum of the hippocampus. High stress in Childhood and Adulthood was associated with decreases in executive function and working memory in both males and females. Stress across the lifespan was also positively associated with the number of diagnosed mental health problems, with a stronger effect in females than in males. Finally, our findings also suggest that cognitive and mental health outcomes due to stress may be mediated by the sex specific stress related changes in brain microstructure. Together our findings demonstrate clear links between stress at distinct phases of the lifespan, changes in measures of brain microstructure, impairments in cognitive abilities and negative mental health outcomes.
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