Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan

Inês Caetano; Liliana Amorim; Teresa Costa Castanho; Ana Coelho; Sónia Ferreira; Carlos Portugal-Nunes; José Miguel Soares; Nuno Gonçalves; Rui Sousa; Joana Reis; Catarina Lima; Paulo Marques; Pedro Silva Moreira; Ana João Rodrigues; Nadine Correia Santos; Pedro Morgado; Madalena Esteves; Ricardo Magalhães; Maria Picó-Pérez; Nuno Sousa

doi:10.1111/ejn.15809

Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan

Inês Caetano
, Liliana Amorim
, Teresa Costa Castanho
, Ana Coelho
, Sónia Ferreira
, Carlos Portugal-Nunes
, José Miguel Soares
, Nuno Gonçalves
, Rui Sousa
, Joana Reis
, Catarina Lima
, Paulo Marques
, Pedro Silva Moreira
, Ana João Rodrigues
, Nadine Correia Santos
, Pedro Morgado
, Madalena Esteves
, Ricardo Magalhães
, Maria Picó-Pérez
, Nuno Sousa

University of Minho
2CA-Clinical Academic Center
Association P5 Digital Medical Center (ACMP5)
Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro
Centro Hospitalar Tondela-Viseu

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Daily routines are getting increasingly stressful. Interestingly, associations between stress perception and amygdala volume, a brain region implicated in emotional behaviour, have been observed in both younger and older adults. Life stress, on the other hand, has become pervasive and is no longer restricted to a specific age group or life stage. As a result, it is vital to consider stress as a continuum across the lifespan. In this study, we investigated the relationship between perceived stress and amygdala size in 272 healthy participants with a broad age range. Participants were submitted to a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to extract amygdala volume, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores were used as the independent variable in volumetric regressions. We found that perceived stress is positively associated with the right amygdala volume throughout life.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	5287-5298
Number of pages	12
Journal	European Journal of Neuroscience
Volume	56
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15809
Publication status	Published - Oct 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Funding

This work was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [FCT]) (Projects UIDB/50026/2020, UIDP/50026/2020, PTDC/MED-NEU/29071/2017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016428), BIAL Foundation (Fundação Bial) (Grants PT/FB/BL-2016-206 and BIAL Foundation 30-16), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Contract Grant P-139977) and the European Commission (FP7) (Contract HEALTH-F2-2010-259772). Fellowship grants supported I. C., L. A. and A. C. through the FCT (Grant Numbers SFRH/BD/133006/2017, SFRH/BD/101398/2014 and NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000041) from the Health Science programme. This work was funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [FCT]) (Projects UIDB/50026/2020, UIDP/50026/2020, PTDC/MED‐NEU/29071/2017 and POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐016428), BIAL Foundation (Fundação Bial) (Grants PT/FB/BL‐2016‐206 and BIAL Foundation 30‐16), Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Contract Grant P‐139977) and the European Commission (FP7) (Contract HEALTH‐F2‐2010‐259772). Fellowship grants supported I. C., L. A. and A. C. through the FCT (Grant Numbers SFRH/BD/133006/2017, SFRH/BD/101398/2014 and NORTE‐08‐5369‐FSE‐000041) from the Health Science programme.

Funders	Funder number
European Commission
BIAL	30‐16
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation	P‐139977
BIAL Foundation	PT/FB/BL‐2016‐206
Seventh Framework Programme	HEALTH‐F2‐2010‐259772, SFRH/BD/133006/2017, NORTE‐08‐5369‐FSE‐000041, SFRH/BD/101398/2014
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	UIDP/50026/2020, UIDB/50026/2020, PTDC/MED‐NEU/29071/2017, POCI‐01‐0145‐FEDER‐016428, SFRH/BD/101398/2014

Keywords

MRI
amygdala
healthy subjects
perceived stress
stress
volumetry

Access to Document

10.1111/ejn.15809

Cite this

Caetano, I., Amorim, L., Castanho, T. C., Coelho, A., Ferreira, S., Portugal-Nunes, C., Soares, J. M., Gonçalves, N., Sousa, R., Reis, J., Lima, C., Marques, P., Moreira, P. S., Rodrigues, A. J., Santos, N. C., Morgado, P., Esteves, M., Magalhães, R., Picó-Pérez, M., & Sousa, N. (2022). Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan. European Journal of Neuroscience, 56(8), 5287-5298. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15809

@article{b431858e5e804849995649bf16e3954f,

title = "Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan",

abstract = "Daily routines are getting increasingly stressful. Interestingly, associations between stress perception and amygdala volume, a brain region implicated in emotional behaviour, have been observed in both younger and older adults. Life stress, on the other hand, has become pervasive and is no longer restricted to a specific age group or life stage. As a result, it is vital to consider stress as a continuum across the lifespan. In this study, we investigated the relationship between perceived stress and amygdala size in 272 healthy participants with a broad age range. Participants were submitted to a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to extract amygdala volume, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores were used as the independent variable in volumetric regressions. We found that perceived stress is positively associated with the right amygdala volume throughout life.",

keywords = "MRI, amygdala, healthy subjects, perceived stress, stress, volumetry",

author = "In{\^e}s Caetano and Liliana Amorim and Castanho, \{Teresa Costa\} and Ana Coelho and S{\'o}nia Ferreira and Carlos Portugal-Nunes and Soares, \{Jos{\'e} Miguel\} and Nuno Gon{\c c}alves and Rui Sousa and Joana Reis and Catarina Lima and Paulo Marques and Moreira, \{Pedro Silva\} and Rodrigues, \{Ana Jo{\~a}o\} and Santos, \{Nadine Correia\} and Pedro Morgado and Madalena Esteves and Ricardo Magalh{\~a}es and Maria Pic{\'o}-P{\'e}rez and Nuno Sousa",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley \& Sons Ltd.",

year = "2022",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1111/ejn.15809",

language = "English",

volume = "56",

pages = "5287--5298",

journal = "European Journal of Neuroscience",

issn = "0953-816X",

publisher = "John Wiley and Sons Inc",

number = "8",

}

Caetano, I, Amorim, L, Castanho, TC, Coelho, A, Ferreira, S, Portugal-Nunes, C, Soares, JM, Gonçalves, N, Sousa, R, Reis, J, Lima, C, Marques, P, Moreira, PS, Rodrigues, AJ, Santos, NC, Morgado, P, Esteves, M, Magalhães, R, Picó-Pérez, M & Sousa, N 2022, 'Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan', European Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 5287-5298. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.15809

TY - JOUR

T1 - Association of amygdala size with stress perception

T2 - Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan

AU - Caetano, Inês

AU - Amorim, Liliana

AU - Castanho, Teresa Costa

AU - Coelho, Ana

AU - Ferreira, Sónia

AU - Portugal-Nunes, Carlos

AU - Soares, José Miguel

AU - Gonçalves, Nuno

AU - Sousa, Rui

AU - Reis, Joana

AU - Lima, Catarina

AU - Marques, Paulo

AU - Moreira, Pedro Silva

AU - Rodrigues, Ana João

AU - Santos, Nadine Correia

AU - Morgado, Pedro

AU - Esteves, Madalena

AU - Magalhães, Ricardo

AU - Picó-Pérez, Maria

AU - Sousa, Nuno

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - Daily routines are getting increasingly stressful. Interestingly, associations between stress perception and amygdala volume, a brain region implicated in emotional behaviour, have been observed in both younger and older adults. Life stress, on the other hand, has become pervasive and is no longer restricted to a specific age group or life stage. As a result, it is vital to consider stress as a continuum across the lifespan. In this study, we investigated the relationship between perceived stress and amygdala size in 272 healthy participants with a broad age range. Participants were submitted to a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to extract amygdala volume, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores were used as the independent variable in volumetric regressions. We found that perceived stress is positively associated with the right amygdala volume throughout life.

AB - Daily routines are getting increasingly stressful. Interestingly, associations between stress perception and amygdala volume, a brain region implicated in emotional behaviour, have been observed in both younger and older adults. Life stress, on the other hand, has become pervasive and is no longer restricted to a specific age group or life stage. As a result, it is vital to consider stress as a continuum across the lifespan. In this study, we investigated the relationship between perceived stress and amygdala size in 272 healthy participants with a broad age range. Participants were submitted to a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to extract amygdala volume, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores were used as the independent variable in volumetric regressions. We found that perceived stress is positively associated with the right amygdala volume throughout life.

KW - MRI

KW - amygdala

KW - healthy subjects

KW - perceived stress

KW - stress

KW - volumetry

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85137397127

U2 - 10.1111/ejn.15809

DO - 10.1111/ejn.15809

M3 - Article

C2 - 36017669

AN - SCOPUS:85137397127

SN - 0953-816X

VL - 56

SP - 5287

EP - 5298

JO - European Journal of Neuroscience

JF - European Journal of Neuroscience

IS - 8

ER -

Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this