Controllability over stressor decreases responses in key threat-related brain areas

Limbachia et al conduct a fMRI study in which participants are shown stressful stimuli that is either controllable or not. They show that the ability to control a stressor results in reduced activity in key areas of the brain that coordinate responses to a perceived threat. Controllability over stressors has major impacts on brain and behavior. In humans, however, the effect of controllability on responses to stressors is poorly understood. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated how controllability altered responses to a shock-plus-sound stressor with a between-group yoked design, where participants in controllable and uncontrollable groups experienced matched stressor exposure. Employing Bayesian multilevel analysis at the level of regions of interest and voxels in the insula, and standard voxelwise analysis, we found that controllability decreased stressor-related responses across threat-related regions, notably in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and anterior insula. Posterior cingulate cortex, posterior insula, and possibly medial frontal gyrus showed increased responses during control over stressor. Our findings support the idea that the aversiveness of stressors is reduced when controllable, leading to decreased responses across key regions involved in anxiety-related processing, even at the level of the extended amygdala.

Automated summary

The research found that controllability has a significant impact on the response to stressful stimuli, reducing activity in key areas of the brain that coordinate responses. When stressful stimuli are controllable, it leads to decreased responses in anxiety-related regions.