Published Online
on November 13, 2006

A more recent version of this article appeared on January 1, 2007

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Submitted on August 2, 2006
Revised on August 21, 2006

Heightened Functional Neural Activation to Psychological Stress Covaries With Exaggerated Blood Pressure Reactivity

Peter J. Gianaros^*; J. Richard Jennings; Lei K. Sheu; Stuart W.G. Derbyshire; and Karen A. Matthews

From the Department of Psychiatry (P.J.G., J.R.J., L.K.S., K.A.M.), University of Pittsburgh, Pa; and the School of Psychology (S.W.G.D.), University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, United Kingdom.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gianarospj{at}upmc.edu.

Abstract--Individuals who show exaggerated blood pressure reactions to psychological stressors are at increased risk for hypertension, atherosclerosis, and stroke. We tested whether individuals who show exaggerated stressor-induced blood pressure reactivity also show heightened stressor-induced neural activation in brain areas involved in controlling the cardiovascular system. In a functional MRI study, 46 postmenopausal women (mean age: 68.04; SD: 1.35 years) performed a standardized Stroop color-word interference task that served as a stressor to increase blood pressure. Across individuals, a larger task-induced rise in blood pressure covaried with heightened and correlated patterns of activation in brain areas implicated previously in stress-related cardiovascular control: the perigenual and posterior cingulate cortex, bilateral prefrontal cortex, anterior insula, and cerebellum. Entered as a set in hierarchical regression analyses, activation values in these brain areas uniquely predicted the magnitude of task-induced changes in systolic (R²=0.54; P<0.001) and diastolic (R²=0.27; P<0.05) blood pressure after statistical control for task accuracy and subjective reports of task stress. Heightened stressor-induced activation of cingulate, prefrontal, insular, and cerebellar brain areas may represent a functional neural phenotype that characterizes individuals who are prone to show exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity.

Key words: blood pressure • cardiovascular reactivity • cerebellum • cingulate • insula • orbitofrontal cortex • psychological stress

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