New Measure to Predict Stress Resilience

Researchers at the University of Zurich show that increased sensitivity in a specific region of the brain contributes to the development of anxiety and depression in response to real-life stress. Their study establishes an objective neurobiological measure for stress resilience in humans. Some people don't seem to be too bothered when it comes to handling stress. For others, however, prolonged exposure to stress can lead to symptoms of anxiety and depression. While stress resilience is a widely discussed concept, it is still very challenging to predict people's individual response to increased levels of stress. Lab experiments can only go so far in replicating the chronic stress many people experience in their day-to-day lives, as stress simulated in the lab is always limited in exposure time and intensity. It is possible, however, to observe a group of medical students who are all about to face real-life stress for an extended period - during their six-month internship in the emergency room. This is precisely the real-life situation on which a team of researchers involving Marcus Grüschow and Christian Ruff from the UZH Zurich Center for Neuroeconomics and Birgit Kleim from the Department of Psychology and the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich based their study. Stress as a response to cognitive conflict and loss of control. Before starting their internship, the subjects were given a task that required them to process conflicting information. This conflict task activates the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system, a region of the brain associated with regulating our response to stress and resolving conflict. However, the intensity of LC-NE activation - often referred to as the "firing rate?