Driver of Physical Responses to Emotional Stress Discovered

A research paper published in 2020 in the journal Science has identified the DP/DTT-to-hypothalamus circuit, a neural circuit that drives physical responses to emotional stress. The dorsal peduncular cortex (DP) and the dorsal tenia tecta (DTT) are areas of the prefrontal cortex. The study was led by Professor Kazuhiro Nakamura and Designated Assistant Professor Naoya Kataok of Nagoya University.

Using rat models, Kataok injected tracers into the brains and then exposed them to a stressful event. When exposed to the event, the DP/DTT (prefrontal cortex) was highly active. This region of brain activity precedes the hypothalamus, triggering the sympathetic nervous system. The prefrontal cortex regions DP/DTT process emotions and stress before alerting the hypothalamus. The researchers then switched off the connection between the hypothalamus and the DP/DTT to further examine the systems underlying the stress response. The result was that the rats did not experience the stress-induced physical response. This study suggests that the DP/DTT is responsible for sending signals to the hypothalamus, and thus, blocking this pathway can help reduce stress symptoms in rats. 

Nakamura and Kataok have suggested that this brain mechanism is responsible for the mind-body connection. Professor Nakamura stated that their findings may offer a “potential target for addressing stress-related disorders such as panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and psychogenic fever.”

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