Cargando…
The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans
Acute stress has an important impact on higher-order cognitive functions supported by the prefrontal cortex (PFC) such as working memory (WM). In rodents, such effects are mediated by stress-induced alterations in catecholaminergic signaling, but human data in support of this notion is lacking. A co...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2012
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350069/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22593737 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00016 |
_version_ | 1782232595434569728 |
---|---|
author | Qin, Shaozheng Cousijn, Helena Rijpkema, Mark Luo, Jing Franke, Barbara Hermans, Erno J. Fernández, Guillén |
author_facet | Qin, Shaozheng Cousijn, Helena Rijpkema, Mark Luo, Jing Franke, Barbara Hermans, Erno J. Fernández, Guillén |
author_sort | Qin, Shaozheng |
collection | PubMed |
description | Acute stress has an important impact on higher-order cognitive functions supported by the prefrontal cortex (PFC) such as working memory (WM). In rodents, such effects are mediated by stress-induced alterations in catecholaminergic signaling, but human data in support of this notion is lacking. A common variation in the gene encoding Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is known to affect basal catecholaminergic availability and PFC functions. Here, we investigated whether this genetic variation (Val158Met) modulates effects of stress on WM-related neural activity in humans. In a counterbalanced crossover design, 41 healthy young men underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a numerical N-back WM task embedded in a stressful or neutral context. Moderate psychological stress was induced by a well-controlled procedure involving viewing strongly aversive (versus emotionally neutral) movie material in combination with a self-referencing instruction. Acute stress resulted in genotype-dependent effects on WM performance and WM-related activation in the dorsolateral PFC, with a relatively negative impact of stress in COMT Met-homozygotes as opposed to a relatively positive effect in Val-carriers. A parallel interaction was found for WM-related deactivation in the anterior medial temporal lobe (MTL). Our findings suggest that individuals with higher baseline catecholaminergic availability (COMT Met-homozygotes) appear to reach a supraoptimal state under moderate levels of stress. In contrast, individuals with lower baselines (Val-carriers) may reach an optimal state. Thus, our data show that effects of acute stress on higher-order cognitive functions vary depending on catecholaminergic availability at baseline, and thereby corroborate animal models of catecholaminergic signaling that propose a non-linear relationship between catecholaminergic activity and prefrontal functions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3350069 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-33500692012-05-16 The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans Qin, Shaozheng Cousijn, Helena Rijpkema, Mark Luo, Jing Franke, Barbara Hermans, Erno J. Fernández, Guillén Front Integr Neurosci Neuroscience Acute stress has an important impact on higher-order cognitive functions supported by the prefrontal cortex (PFC) such as working memory (WM). In rodents, such effects are mediated by stress-induced alterations in catecholaminergic signaling, but human data in support of this notion is lacking. A common variation in the gene encoding Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is known to affect basal catecholaminergic availability and PFC functions. Here, we investigated whether this genetic variation (Val158Met) modulates effects of stress on WM-related neural activity in humans. In a counterbalanced crossover design, 41 healthy young men underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while performing a numerical N-back WM task embedded in a stressful or neutral context. Moderate psychological stress was induced by a well-controlled procedure involving viewing strongly aversive (versus emotionally neutral) movie material in combination with a self-referencing instruction. Acute stress resulted in genotype-dependent effects on WM performance and WM-related activation in the dorsolateral PFC, with a relatively negative impact of stress in COMT Met-homozygotes as opposed to a relatively positive effect in Val-carriers. A parallel interaction was found for WM-related deactivation in the anterior medial temporal lobe (MTL). Our findings suggest that individuals with higher baseline catecholaminergic availability (COMT Met-homozygotes) appear to reach a supraoptimal state under moderate levels of stress. In contrast, individuals with lower baselines (Val-carriers) may reach an optimal state. Thus, our data show that effects of acute stress on higher-order cognitive functions vary depending on catecholaminergic availability at baseline, and thereby corroborate animal models of catecholaminergic signaling that propose a non-linear relationship between catecholaminergic activity and prefrontal functions. Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-05-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3350069/ /pubmed/22593737 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00016 Text en Copyright © 2012 Qin, Cousijn, Rijpkema, Luo, Franke, Hermans and Fernández. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Neuroscience Qin, Shaozheng Cousijn, Helena Rijpkema, Mark Luo, Jing Franke, Barbara Hermans, Erno J. Fernández, Guillén The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title | The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title_full | The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title_fullStr | The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title_full_unstemmed | The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title_short | The effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
title_sort | effect of moderate acute psychological stress on working memory-related neural activity is modulated by a genetic variation in catecholaminergic function in humans |
topic | Neuroscience |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3350069/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22593737 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2012.00016 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT qinshaozheng theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT cousijnhelena theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT rijpkemamark theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT luojing theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT frankebarbara theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT hermansernoj theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT fernandezguillen theeffectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT qinshaozheng effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT cousijnhelena effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT rijpkemamark effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT luojing effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT frankebarbara effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT hermansernoj effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans AT fernandezguillen effectofmoderateacutepsychologicalstressonworkingmemoryrelatedneuralactivityismodulatedbyageneticvariationincatecholaminergicfunctioninhumans |