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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2015 Jun 24;58:79–91. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.06.018

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Schematic to illustrate that the sex steroid hormones (e.g. androgens and estrogens) have an important basis for individual differences in stress reactivity under normal conditions, and under those that produce pathological changes in mood, metabolic and cardiovascular function, for examples. This schematic underscores that the sex steroid hormones can redirect the strength of influence of stress on the body. Note that sex steroid hormone secretion and signaling (as with other factors listed in Table 1) are also themselves subject to homeostatic threat, and in this design can be placed either above or below “individual differences”; implying that relationships between gonadal status and stress can change in a situation- and context-dependent manner.