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Free keywords:
adaptation, allostasis, appraisal, aversion, coping, emotion, emotionregulation, interference, inhibition, mental health, motivation, PASTOR, prevention, reappraisal, recovery, resilience, stress, stressor, trauma
Abstract:
The well-replicated observation that many people maintain mental health despite exposure to severe psychological or physical
adversity has ignited interest in the mechanisms that protect against stress-related mental illness. Focusing on resilience rather than
pathophysiology in many ways represents a paradigm shift in clinical-psychological and psychiatric research that has great potential
for the development of new prevention and treatment strategies. More recently, research into resilience also arrived in the
neurobiological community, posing nontrivial questions about ecological validity and translatability. Drawing on concepts and findings
from transdiagnostic psychiatry, emotion research, and behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, we propose a unified theoretical
framework for the neuroscientific study of general resilience mechanisms. The framework is applicable to both animal and human
research and supports the design and interpretation of translational studies. The theory emphasizes the causal role of stimulus
appraisal (evaluation) processes in the generation of emotional responses, including responses to potential stressors. On this basis, it
posits that a positive (non-negative) appraisal style is the key mechanism that protects against the detrimental effects of stress and
mediates the effects of other known resilience factors. Appraisal style is shaped by three classes of cognitive processes – positive
situation classification, reappraisal, and interference inhibition – that can be investigated at the neural level. Prospects for the future
development of resilience research are discussed.
