Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Association of amygdala size with stress perception: Findings of a transversal study across the lifespan

2022; Wiley; Volume: 56; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/ejn.15809

1460-9568

Inês Caetano, Liliana Amorim, Teresa Costa Castanho, Ana Coelho, Sónia Ferreira, Carlos Portugal‐Nunes, José Miguel Soares, Nuno Gonçalves, Rui Sousa, Joana Reis, Catarina Lima, Paulo Marques, Pedro Silva Moreira, Ana João Rodrigues, Nadine Correia Santos, Pedro Morgado, Madalena Esteves, Ricardo Magalhães, Maria Picó‐Pérez, Nuno Sousa,

Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction

Daily routines are getting increasingly stressful. Interestingly, associations between stress perception and amygdala volume, a brain region implicated in emotional behaviour, have been observed in both younger and older adults. Life stress, on the other hand, has become pervasive and is no longer restricted to a specific age group or life stage. As a result, it is vital to consider stress as a continuum across the lifespan. In this study, we investigated the relationship between perceived stress and amygdala size in 272 healthy participants with a broad age range. Participants were submitted to a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to extract amygdala volume, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores were used as the independent variable in volumetric regressions. We found that perceived stress is positively associated with the right amygdala volume throughout life.