Figure 4.

Chronic unpredictable stress-recruited circuitry. Exposure to chronic variable stress (CVS) selectively recruits chronic cellular activation (in terms of FosB expression) in a discrete set of interconnected brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS), and the posterior hypothalamic nucleus (PH). The PH projects to both the PH and NTS, and both PH and NTS project to the PVN, creating the opportunity for PFC-PVN regulation in parallel, in series, or both. Via this pathway, chronic stress can increase drive to the PFC and subsequently cause glucocorticoid-mediated endocrine, behavioral, and metabolic dysfunction. This figure is reprinted from Flak et al. (2012), with permission.