Stress and the balance between approach and avoidance: the role of noradrenaline and cortisol

• Applicant: Dr. Susanne Vogel
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 362215228

Human beings have the natural tendency to approach positive stimuli and to avoid negative, potentially dangerous stimuli. Many situations, however, contain both positive and negative stimuli, resulting in conflicts between tendencies to approach or avoid. The disturbance of this balance between approach and avoidance is key to several psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety disorders or addiction. Strikingly, stress is assumed to play a critical role in the development and maintenance of many of these psychiatric disorders. In addition, it is well known that stress affects brain regions crucial for the balance between approach and avoidance behavior. However, if and how stress alters human approach and avoidance behavior is still unknown. Thus, this project will examine the impact of stress and major stress mediators on approach and avoidance behavior. Specifically, this project aims at unravelling the role of the main stress mediators noradrenaline and cortisol in approach and avoidance behavior. Two consecutive pharmacological experiments will be performed to reveal whether cortisol and noradrenaline are sufficient to alter approach and avoidance behavior (experiment 1) and whether the effect of stress on avoidance behavior can be prevented by pharmacologically blocking one of these two stress mediators (experiment 2). In both experiments, participants will complete a computerized approach-avoidance task. In experiment 1, they will receive hydrocortisone, the adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine, or both drugs before task performance. In experiment 2, they will first be administered the glucocorticoid synthesis inhibitor metyrapone or the beta blocker propranolol before they undergo a stress or control manipulation and then complete the approach-avoidance task. A better understanding of how stress, noradrenaline, and cortisol affect approach and avoidance behavior in healthy individuals will have important implications for our understanding of how stress-related mental disorders develop and may even lead to novel avenues to treat or prevent these disorders. Moreover, this project will provide novel insights into how stress, cortisol, and noradrenalin affect a fundamental aspect of human behavior, the balance between approaching positive and avoiding negative stimuli.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Lars Schwabe