Physiological Organization of Neurohormonal Responses to Psychosocial Stimuli: Implications for Health and Disease

In these days, when subcellular and molecular biology often seem to be the focus of biomedical attention, it is justified to stress how the highest centers of the brain can, via a number of differentiated neurohormonal patterns, readjust virtually all bodily functions–down to the subcellular and molecular levels of the organization. These response patterns, able to cope with a variety of environmental challenges even in anticipatory fashions, can– when intensely engaged–entirely dominate bodily functions and behavior. Further, several of them may, during prolonged or/and oft-repeated activations, even affect the structure of cells and organ systems as a consequence of the imposed alterations in functional load and by exerting growth-promoting influences via some hormones and nerve transmitters. The more important of these age-old limbic–hypothalamic response patterns are outlined from a physiological point of view, with the main emphasis on the so-called “defense” and “defeat” reactions with respect to modes of induction, bodily expressions, and feedback effects on the brain. Both of these reactions appear to be of particular relevance for the gradual induction of some common “psychosomatic” disorders in modern man, evidently due to the abundance of psychosocial stimuli and the hectic pace which often characterize present-day affluent society. This situation is exemplified in the cardiovascular system, since the centrally-elicited neurohormonal influences seem to greatly contribute to the gradual induction of chronic high-pressure states as well as to atherosclerosis, particularly when predisposing genetic factors and other types of environmental influences are at hand.