The development of an fMRI protocol to investigate vmPFC network functioning underlying the generalization of...

Experiencing behavioral control over stress can have long-lasting and generalizing effects. Animal research has shown that vmPFC-subcortical interactions are critical for behavioral control; however, research in humans is sparse. Therefore a paradigm was developed in which participants (n = 18) were first assigned to a controllable or uncontrollable version of a signal detection task associated with mild shocks. Subsequently, subjects underwent an fMRI task on the anticipation of speaking in public while measuring self-reported stress, heart rate, and vmPFC network topology. The signal detection task results revealed faster responses to potential shock trials and a trend difference between the controllable and uncontrollable group. The speech anticipation procedure did not show significant between-group differences on self-reported stress or heart rate. fMRI results indicated higher vmPFC efficiency in the controllable threat group at baseline and recovery but similar to the uncontrollable group during speech anticipation. The current report establishes the feasibility of the protocol. However, to evaluate the generalization effect of controllability on the behavioral, physiological, and neural levels further, adequately-powered follow-up research is needed.