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Related Concept Videos

Psychological Responses to Stress01:20

Psychological Responses to Stress

Psychological responses to stress encompass the various cognitive and emotional reactions individuals experience when faced with challenging or threatening situations, such as a job loss. Prolonged exposure to stressors can disturb emotional balance, increasing negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and sadness) and diminishing positive emotions (e.g., joy and satisfaction). These persistent emotional shifts are associated with an increased risk of both physical illness and mental health issues, such...
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Decision-making is a fundamental cognitive process that involves evaluating alternatives and selecting among them. This process can range from simple choices, such as deciding what to wear, to complex decisions, like choosing a major in college or a career path. The complexity of the decision often dictates the approach we use, which can be broadly categorized into two types: automatic and controlled decision-making.
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Reason and Intuition01:37

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Assessment of Stress Effects on Cognitive Flexibility using an Operant Strategy Shifting Paradigm
07:26

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Published on: May 4, 2020

Gender differences in reward-related decision processing under stress.

Nichole R Lighthall1, Michiko Sakaki, Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn

  • 1Department of Gerontology, Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, 3715 McClintock Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. nichole.lighthall@usc.edu

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
|May 26, 2011
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Stress impacts decision-making differently in men and women, affecting brain activity in key reward areas. This study reveals gender-specific neural responses to stress during reward-related choices.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Emerging research highlights gender disparities in how stress influences decision-making.
  • However, the underlying brain mechanisms driving these gender-specific stress effects remain largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate gender-specific brain activation patterns during reward-related decision tasks under induced stress.
  • To elucidate the neural correlates of stress-induced behavioral differences between men and women.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to capture brain activity.
  • Physiological stress was induced using a cold pressor task before a risky decision-making task.
  • Participants included healthy men and women, with stress and control conditions.

Main Results:

  • Behavioral gender differences emerged only in the stressed group: males showed increased reward collection and faster decisions, while females exhibited decreased reward collection and slower decisions.
  • A significant gender-by-stress interaction was found in the dorsal striatum and anterior insula.
  • Cold stress increased activation in these regions for males but decreased it for females.

Conclusions:

  • The impact of stress on reward processing and decision-making exhibits significant gender-specific modulation.
  • Neural responses in the dorsal striatum and anterior insula differ between genders under stress.
  • These findings underscore the importance of considering gender in stress and decision-making research.