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Chapter 4.4 Functional interactions between stress neuromediators and the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system
Book chapter

Chapter 4.4 Functional interactions between stress neuromediators and the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system

Rita J. Valentino and Elisabeth J. Van Bockstaele
Techniques in the Behavioral and Neural Sciences, pp 465-486
2005
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-0709(05)80026-4

Abstract

Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is considered a hallmark of the stress response. Coincident with this, peripheral and central noradrenaline systems are activated. By engaging medullary noradrenaline projections to the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, stressors regulate the endocrine limb of the stress response. Engaging noradrenaline projections from the pontine nucleus, locus coeruleus (LC), to the forebrain may serve as a behavioral or cognitive limb of the stress response. This chapter will focus on the impact of stress on the LC-noradrenaline system and its forebrain targets. The body of evidence supporting the view that diverse stressors consistently activate this system will be briefly reviewed. Convergent lines of evidence suggest that corticotropinreleasing factor (CRF) is a critical substrate of the stress response that regulates activity of the LC-noradrenaline system during stress. This chapter will discuss the impact of CRF and stressors on the LC-noradrenaline system from the level of individual LC neurons to the distributed network of LC projections. The concept that stress regulates activity of the LC-noradrenaline system by integrating the actions of CRF with other neuromodulators will be developed and a circuitry underlying these interactions will be proposed. These findings will be integrated with physiological and behavioral studies that have suggested specific roles for the LC-noradrenaline system in the modulation of arousal and attention into the hypothesis that activation of this system is an important component of a cognitive limb of the stress response. Finally, as the endocrine limb of the stress response exhibits plasticity, which is expressed with manipulations such as chronic stress or adrenalectomy, evidence will be reviewed which suggests that the limb comprising the LC-noradrenaline system exhibits similar plasticity, which may have both adaptive and pathological consequences.

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