New Frontiers in Stress Research

The stress response is an adaptive, complex, and essential process that serves to prepare an organism for the variety of dangers it may encounter. However, this same process may also be detrimental. The challenge of identifying the circumstances which alter the advantageous stress response to a damaging process has been taken up by scientists from various disciplines. The interdisciplinary focus on the modifications of brain functions as the medium for the immediate, as well as the long-term, effects of stress, enables a simultaneous analysis of the behavioral, histological, hormonal, and immunological processes involved. The dichotomy of the stress response is elucidated through the interactions of various neuronal sites, and the neurotransmitter and hormonal regulation of the central nervous system. Research on the interaction between stress and neuroimmunological processes is included and the implications of these stress effects to human conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Alzheimer's disease, and memory impairment are addressed.