The generalization of behavioral control over physical threats to social stressors in humans: A pilot fMRI study

Joseph S Blythe¹, Alessandra C Mansueto², Sascha B Duken³, Henk R Cremers³

Affiliations

¹ University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.s.blythe@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
² University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Department of Developmental Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychological Methods, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Center for Urban Mental Health, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), Postbus 15791, 1001 NG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PMID: 36680844
DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111598

Free article

The generalization of behavioral control over physical threats to social stressors in humans: A pilot fMRI study

Joseph S Blythe et al. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2023 Mar.

Free article

. 2023 Mar:329:111598.

doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111598. Epub 2023 Jan 16.

Authors

Joseph S Blythe¹, Alessandra C Mansueto², Sascha B Duken³, Henk R Cremers³

Affiliations

¹ University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands; Leiden University, Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.s.blythe@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
² University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Department of Developmental Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Department of Psychological Methods, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Center for Urban Mental Health, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), Postbus 15791, 1001 NG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ University of Amsterdam, Department of Clinical Psychology, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166, 1018 WV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

PMID: 36680844
DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111598

Abstract

Behavioral control, the ability to manage one's exposure to a given stressor, influences the impacts of both the present and future stressors. Behavioral control over a stressor may decrease stress caused by the stressor, and promote resilience towards future stressors. A lack of behavioral control may exacerbate the stress response and lead to learned helplessness, a generalized view that one cannot control other, unrelated stressors in their environment. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) may detect the presence of behavioral control over a stressor and communicate this to subcortical regions involved in stress responses, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Building on previous research in animals and humans, we piloted a paradigm to investigate how behavioral control over a physical threat (electric shocks), generalized to responses for a subsequent social stressor (anticipation of public speaking). Our manipulation of behavioral control effected perceived control between groups, increased stress across but not between groups, and no effects generalized to the subsequent social stressor in behavioral, physiological, or neural responses. We discuss refinements to the paradigm to strengthen the manipulation, the potential impacts of statistical power on the present results, and metrics to measure the generalization of behavioral control in addition to vmPFC-subcortical connectivity.

Keywords: Behavioral control; Learned helplessness; vmPFC, Network analysis, fMRI.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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The generalization of behavioral control over physical threats to social stressors in humans: A pilot fMRI study

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The generalization of behavioral control over physical threats to social stressors in humans: A pilot fMRI study

Authors

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Conflict of interest statement

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