McManus Elizabeth, Haroon Hamied, Duncan Niall W, Elliott Rebecca, Muhlert Nils
The University of Manchester, Division of Neuroscience & Experimental Psychology, UK.
Taipei Medical University, Graduate Institute of Mind Brain and Consciousness, Taiwan.
Neurobiol Stress. 2022 Apr 14;18:100447. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2022.100447. eCollection 2022 May.
Repeated overstimulation of the stress response system, caused by exposure to prolonged highly stressful experiences, is thought to affect brain structure, cognitive ability, and mental health. We tested the effects of highly stressful experiences during childhood and adulthood using data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale national health and biomedical study with over 500,000 participants. To do this, we defined four groups with high or low levels of childhood and/or adulthood stress. We then used T1-and diffusion-weighted MRI data to assess the macrostructure of grey matter and microstructure of white matter within limbic brain regions, commonly associated with the stress response. We also compared executive function and working memory between these groups. Our findings suggest that in females, higher levels of Childhood stress were associated with reduced connectivity within the posterior thalamic radiation and cingulum of the hippocampus. In males however, higher levels of Adulthood stress is associated with similar changes in brain microstructure in the posterior thalamic radiation and cingulum of the hippocampus. High stress in Childhood and Adulthood was associated with decreases in executive function and working memory in both males and females. Stress across the lifespan was also positively associated with the number of diagnosed mental health problems, with a stronger effect in females than in males. Finally, our findings also suggest that cognitive and mental health outcomes due to stress may be mediated by the sex specific stress related changes in brain microstructure. Together our findings demonstrate clear links between stress at distinct phases of the lifespan, changes in measures of brain microstructure, impairments in cognitive abilities and negative mental health outcomes.
长期暴露于高度紧张的经历所导致的应激反应系统的反复过度刺激，被认为会影响大脑结构、认知能力和心理健康。我们利用英国生物银行的数据，测试了童年和成年期高度紧张经历的影响。英国生物银行是一项大规模的全国性健康和生物医学研究，有超过50万名参与者。为此，我们定义了四组童年和/或成年期压力水平高或低的人群。然后，我们使用T1加权和扩散加权磁共振成像数据，来评估边缘脑区灰质的宏观结构和白质的微观结构，这些脑区通常与应激反应相关。我们还比较了这些组之间的执行功能和工作记忆。我们的研究结果表明，在女性中，童年压力水平较高与丘脑后辐射和海马扣带内的连通性降低有关。然而，在男性中，成年期压力水平较高与丘脑后辐射和海马扣带中脑微观结构的类似变化有关。童年和成年期的高压力与男性和女性的执行功能和工作记忆下降有关。一生中的压力也与确诊的心理健康问题数量呈正相关，对女性的影响比对男性更强。最后，我们的研究结果还表明，压力导致的认知和心理健康结果可能由大脑微观结构中特定性别的应激相关变化介导。我们的研究结果共同表明，生命周期不同阶段的压力、脑微观结构测量的变化、认知能力的损害和负面心理健康结果之间存在明确的联系。
