Exam 3: Stress Flashcards
What is the Stress Response?
The body’s coordinated physiological and behavioral reactions to a perceived threat or challenge.
What is a Stressor?
Any stimulus or event that disrupts homeostasis and triggers a stress response.
What is Eustress?
A positive form of stress that can enhance function and performance.
What is Distress?
A negative form of stress that can be harmful to health and well-being.
What is Physical Stress?
Stress arising from physical challenges like injury, illness, or extreme temperatures.
What is Psychological Stress?
Stress resulting from perceived threats, challenges, or emotional conflicts.
What is Social Stress?
Stress experienced in social situations, such as evaluation or conflict with others.
What is Acute Stress?
Short-term stress that activates immediate adaptive responses.
What is Subchronic Stress?
Stress exposure lasting several days to weeks.
What is Chronic Stress?
Prolonged or repeated stress exposure that can impair health and function.
What is the Inverted-U curve (Yerkes-Dodson law)?
A model suggesting performance increases with arousal up to a point, then declines if arousal is too high.
What is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST)?
A standardized method of inducing social stress involving public speaking and mental arithmetic in front of evaluators.
What is the Cold Pressor Test?
A test involving hand immersion in cold water to elicit a physiological stress response.
What is the Sucrose Preference Test?
A behavioral test measuring preference for a sweet solution, used as an indicator of anhedonia.
What is the Tail Suspension Test?
A behavioral assay where immobility is used as an index of depression-like behavior in rodents.
What is the Forced Swim Test?
A test that measures passive floating behavior in water, indicative of behavioral despair in rodents.
What is Threat Perception?
The appraisal of a situation as threatening, triggering activation of the stress response.
What is the Role of the Amygdala in Stress?
Processes emotionally relevant information and initiates fear responses; activates the HPA axis during stress.
What is the Role of the Hippocampus in Stress?
Regulates memory and context of stress; helps inhibit the HPA axis after a stressor ends.
What is the Role of the Prefrontal Cortex in Stress?
Involved in decision-making and regulation of emotion; modulates amygdala and stress responses.
What is the Role of the Hypothalamus in Stress?
Activates the HPA axis and orchestrates the neuroendocrine stress response.
What is the Endocrine System?
A system of glands that release hormones directly into the bloodstream to regulate body processes.
What is the Autonomic Nervous System?
A system that regulates involuntary physiological functions including heart rate, digestion, and respiration.
What is the Sympathetic Nervous System?
Branch of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for fight-or-flight.
What is the Parasympathetic Nervous System?
Branch of the autonomic nervous system that promotes rest and digestion.
What is the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis?
A major neuroendocrine system that controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes.
What is the Sympatho-neural System?
Involves nerve signals from the brainstem to peripheral organs during stress.
What is the Sympatho-adrenomedullary System?
Activates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine in response to stress.
What is the Adrenal Medulla?
Part of the adrenal gland that releases adrenaline and norepinephrine during stress.
What is Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone (CRH)?
A hormone released by the hypothalamus that stimulates the anterior pituitary during stress.
What is the Anterior Pituitary?
Part of the pituitary gland that releases ACTH in response to CRH.
What is Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH)?
A hormone released by the anterior pituitary that stimulates the adrenal cortex to release cortisol.
What is the Adrenal Cortex?
Part of the adrenal gland that releases cortisol in response to ACTH.
What is Cortisol?
A steroid hormone released by the adrenal cortex that helps mobilize energy during stress.
What is a Glucocorticoid?
A class of steroid hormones involved in metabolism and stress responses.
What is a Glucocorticoid Receptor?
A protein that binds cortisol and mediates its effects on cells.
What are Feedback Mechanisms of the Stress Response?
Mechanisms by which cortisol inhibits further activation of the HPA axis.
What is Stress Resilience?
The ability to adapt to and recover from stress exposure without lasting negative effects.
