Published: September 7, 2011
Glutamatergic neuron of the hippocampus. © MPI of Psychiatry
Emotional balance is regulated by molecular factors behind stress response. When healthy people are faced with threatening situations, they react with a suitable behavioural response and do not descend into a state of either panic or indifference, as is the case, for example, with patients who suffer from anxiety.
With the help of genetic studies on mice, scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry have discovered two opposing neuronal regulatory circuits for the generation and elimination of fear. Both are controlled by the stress-inducing messenger substance corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and its type 1 receptor (CRHR1). The availability of these factors in neurons that release glutamate in brain areas of the limbic system activates a neuronal network which causes anxiety behaviour. Conversely, in dopamine-releasing neurons in the mid-brain, these factors give rise to behaviour that reduces fear. Because disorders of the stress factors may be observed in many patients with affective illnesses, the scientists suspect that the pathological alteration of the CRHR1-dependent regulatory circuits may be at the root of such emotional maladies. [continue reading…]
Published: September 1, 2011
Stressed-out parents make lasting impressions on their kids, according to a new study that finds the negative experience causes changes to a child’s genes that are still present in their teenage years.
The finding reveals a mechanism by which childhood experiences impact a person’s biology, the researchers said.
“This is very exciting, because we’ve shown that day-to-day stress in early childhood can predict changes in DNA that can be observed in adolescence,” said study researcher Marilyn Essex, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health. “It’s further proof of the importance of those early years and the lasting effects of children’s family environments during infancy and preschool.” Curious? Continue reading
Source: Live Science
Published: September 1, 2011
istockphoto
oes Dad’s stress affect his unborn children? According to the results of a new study in
Elsevier’s Biological Psychiatry, it seems the answer may be “yes, but it’s complicated”.
The risk of developing depression, which is significantly increased by exposure to chronic stress, is influenced by both environment and genetics. The interplay of these two factors is quite complex, but in fact, there is even a third factor that most of us know nothing about – epigenetics. Epigenetics is the science of changes in genetic expression that are not caused by actual changes in DNA sequencing. It is these mechanisms that have been the recent focus of intergenerational investigations into the transmission of stress vulnerability. [continue reading…]
Published: August 19, 2011
A co-worker’s rudeness can have a great impact on relationships far beyond the workplace, according to a Baylor University study published online in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Findings suggest that stress created by incivility can be so intense that, at the end of the day, it is taken home by the worker and impacts the well-being of the worker’s family and partner, who in turn takes the stress to his/her workplace.
“Employees who experience such incivility at work bring home the stress, negative emotion and perceived ostracism that results from those experiences, which then affects more than their family life – it also creates problems for the partner’s life at work,” said Merideth J. Ferguson, Ph.D., assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business and study author.
“This research underlines the importance of stopping incivility before it starts so that the ripple effect of incivility does not impact the employee’s family and potentially inflict further damage beyond the workplace where the incivility took place and cross over into the workplace of the partner,” she said. [continue reading…]
