The Role of Behavioral Control and the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
from Part I - Theoretical Perspectives on the Development of Coping
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2023
Coping strategies are important determinants of resilience, however it is often difficult to isolate such processes at the animal level where the underlying neurobiology can be explored. Here we review research indicating that the degree to which an organism can exert control over adverse events, a key element of coping, potently modulates the impact of the event, with uncontrollable stressors producing outcomes that do not occur if the stressor is controllable. The data suggest that the stress-resistance produced by control depends on activation of distinct neural systems involving the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). In addition, the experience of control changes how the mPFC responds to future adverse events, even those that are uncontrollable, thereby providing resilience that is both enduring and trans-situational. We also address sex differences within controllability phenomena, the extent to which other resilience-promoting factors engage similar circuitry, and the clinical implications of these findings.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.