Liu Qian, Wu Jianhui, Zhang Liang, Sun Xiaofang, Guan Qing, Yao Zhuxi
Center for Brain Disorder and Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
Shenzhen Futian Foreign Languages School, Shenzhen, China.
Front Psychol. 2021 Aug 17;12:683914. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.683914. eCollection 2021.
Psychological factors can modulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity toward stressors. Animal studies demonstrated that uncontrollability was one critical factor associated with HPA axis stress response, but the results in human studies were inconsistent. The current study adopted a standardized laboratory stress induction procedure, the Trier Social Stress Test (the TSST), as the stressor to regulate the objective controllability level, and young adult participants were asked to rate their subjectively perceived control level toward the stressor and measured their cortisol stress responses (=54; 19 females and 35 males) to address this concern. Results showed that participants' perceived control on the TSST was related to the cortisol stress response. In other words, under the stress of a certain objective controllability level, the lower the subjectively perceived control level, the greater the HPA axis response. This finding suggested that, in addition to objective controllability, subjectively perceived control is a psychological factor that regulates activation of the HPA axis in young adults.
心理因素可调节下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺（HPA）轴对应激源的活动。动物研究表明，不可控性是与HPA轴应激反应相关的一个关键因素，但人体研究的结果并不一致。本研究采用标准化的实验室应激诱导程序——特里尔社会应激测试（TSST）作为应激源来调节客观可控性水平，并要求年轻成年参与者对他们对应激源的主观控制感进行评分，并测量他们的皮质醇应激反应（n = 54；19名女性和35名男性），以解决这一问题。结果表明，参与者对TSST的感知控制与皮质醇应激反应有关。换句话说，在一定客观可控性水平的应激下，主观控制感越低，HPA轴反应越大。这一发现表明，除了客观可控性外，主观控制感是调节年轻人HPA轴激活的一个心理因素。
