Central Autonomic Integration of Psychological Stressors: Focus on Cardiovascular Modulation

During stress the sympathoadrenal system and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis act in a coordinated manner to force changes within an animal's current physiological and behavioral state. Such changes have been described as 'fight flight' or stress responses. The central nervous system may generate a stress response by different neural circuits, this being dependent upon the type of stressor presented. For instance, the central control of the autonomic function during physical stress would seem to be based on existing homeostatic mechanisms. In contrast, with exposure to psychological stress the means by which autonomic outflow is regulated has not been fully established. This review discusses recent observations of autonomic flow, cardiovascular components in particular, during psychological stress and the possible implications these may have for our understanding of the central nervous system. In addition, an update of recent findings concerning several regions thought to be important to the regulation of autonomic function during psychological stress exposure is provided.