Exposure to acute and chronic stress has a broad range of structural effects on the brain.
The brain areas commonly targeted in the stress response models include the hippocampus, the amygdala,
and the prefrontal cortex. Studies in patients suffering from the so-called stress-related disorders
-embracing post-traumatic stress, major depressive and anxiety disorders- have fairly replicated animal
models of stress response -particularly the neuroendocrine and the inflammatory models- by finding
alterations in different brain areas, even in the early neurodevelopment. Therefore, this narrative review
aims to provide an overview of structural neuroimaging findings and to discuss how these studies
have contributed to our knowledge of variability in response to stress and the ulterior development of
stress-related disorders. There are a gross number of studies available but neuroimaging research of
stress-related disorders as a single category is still in its infancy. Although the available studies point
at particular brain circuitries involved in stress and emotion regulation, the pathophysiology of these
abnormalities -involving genetics, epigenetics and molecular pathways-, their relation to intraindividual
stress responses -including personality characteristics, self-perception of stress conditions…-,
and their potential involvement as biomarkers in diagnosis, treatment prescription and prognosis
are discussed.