News Releases & Research Results Elucidation of the mechanism of psychosomatic correlation connecting the mind and body - A new treatment strategy for stress-related diseases -

News Releases & Research Results

Outline

The results of study conducted by Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Naoya Kataoka and Professor Kazuhiro Nakamura of the Department of Integrative Physiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine.

The key results of study are as follows:

  • How mental signals, such as stress and emotion in the brain, affect the regulatory mechanism of the body remained a great mystery.
  • In this study, a neural pathway for transmitting stress signals from the DP/DTT (dorsal peduncular cortex/dorsal tenia tecta)* areas, which respond to psychological stress and emotion, in the cerebral cortex to the hypothalamus, which controls the sympathetic nervous system critical for body regulation, was discovered in a rat experiment.
    * Most ventral (deepest) area of the medial prefrontal cortex in the midline of the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex.
  • Furthermore, disrupting or inhibiting this pathway eliminated the increases in body temperature, pulse, and blood pressure due to psychosocial stress and the escape from the source of stress.
  • The results of study should promote the development of innovative treatments for stress-related diseases such as panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and psychogenic fever.

This Study was conducted with the support of Project for Elucidating and Controlling Mechanisms of Aging and Longevity by AMED.

The results of study were published in the American journal, Science, on March 6.

Article

Kataoka N., et al. A central master driver of psychosocial stress responses in the rat Science
DOI:10.1126/science.aaz4639

03/06/20

Last updated 03/06/20