{
  "abstract": "Understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of stress susceptibility is key to advancing our insight into stress-related psychopathology like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because traumatic events are unpredictable, capturing brain activity during or right after trauma is extremely difficult in humans, creating a critical gap in understanding how neural responses lead to long-term behavioral consequences. This study leverages a controlled animal model to overcome this limitation, enabling time-locked, whole-brain mapping of neural activity as a function of the individual’s susceptibility to stress. We used a mouse model for severe stress, segregating male mice into stress-susceptible and resilient groups. We analyzed and contrasted their whole-brain neuronal activity pre-, peri- and post-stress exposure and compared functional connectivity of the salience (SN), default mode (DMN) and executive control network (lateral cortical network (LCN) in rodents). We found that stress-susceptible mice exhibited pre-existing hyperactivity in the lateral orbital area, a potential risk factor for stress vulnerability, and heightened retrosplenial cortex activity peri- and post-stress, potentially contributing to a maladaptive memory for the stressful event. Upon stress exposure, susceptible mice showed strong recruitment of visual and memory-related areas, whereas resilient mice displayed marked reductions in retrosplenial activity and increased activation in the agranular insula and ventral striatum. Observations of enhanced intra-SN and SN-DMN connectivity in susceptible mice mirrored those observed in individuals with PTSD. Moreover, susceptible mice displayed aberrant DMN-LCN connectivity pre- and peri-stress. These findings reveal circuit-level signatures of stress susceptibility that mirror human PTSD and point to novel potential biomarkers and targets for mechanistic intervention.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 11,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Bart C. J. Dirven",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9096-7922"
    },
    {
      "name": "Moritz Negwer"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andriana Botan"
    },
    {
      "name": "Riv Maas"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lennart van Melis"
    },
    {
      "name": "Sanne Merjenburgh"
    },
    {
      "name": "Rebecca van Rijn"
    },
    {
      "name": "Joanes Grandjean",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8413-0491"
    },
    {
      "name": "Judith R. Homberg",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7621-1010"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tamas Kozicz",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6915-4364"
    },
    {
      "name": "Marloes J. A. G. Henckens",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2375-1611"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0dywnya9a2e3.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1038/s41398-026-04477-6",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c0dywnya9a2e3",
  "issns": [
    "2158-3188"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-026-04477-6",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "3203|Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7220708843",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-026-04477-6_reference.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-06",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0dywnya9a2e3.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:26Z",
      "native_id": "10.1038/s41398-026-04477-6",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-026-04477-6"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:3203|Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Brain-wide circuit dynamics underlying stress susceptibility and resilience in male mice",
  "title_text": "Brain-wide circuit dynamics underlying stress susceptibility and resilience in male mice",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:20:26Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c0dywnya9a2e3",
  "venue": "Translational Psychiatry",
  "versions": []
}