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

• Published in: Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging 2023-03, Vol.329, p.111598-111598, Article 111598
• Main Authors: Blythe, Joseph S., Mansueto, Alessandra C., Duken, Sascha B., Cremers, Henk R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior Control; Behavioral control; Helplessness, Learned; Humans; Learned helplessness; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Nucleus Accumbens; Prefrontal Cortex - diagnostic imaging; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; vmPFC, Network analysis, fMRI
• ISSN: 0925-4927; 1872-7506
• DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2023.111598

•Tested new design to measure generalization of behavioral control across stressors.•Behavioral control manipulation produced changes in perceived control, not stress.•No behavioral, physiological, or neural effects generalized across stressors.•Pilot study provides new insights for future behavioral control research in humans. 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.