Table 3.

Overview of studies on the associations between endogenous cortisol and brain activity on tasks after psychological stress.

Reference	Participants (mean age, percentage females)	Stressor	Task	Time between end of stressor and task	Results for HVs For ↑ cortisol - reported as either correlation with cortisol, or as a group difference (stress vs control)
Conditioning tasks
Merz et al., 2013	48 HV stress (Mage=23.22, 50%) 48 HV control (Mage=23.22, 50%)	TSST outside scanner	Fear conditioning task	25 min	WB: no significant associations ROI: ↓ L NAcc* no associations with ACC, L amygdala
Lewis et al., 2014	7 HV stress responder (Mage=25.43, 57.1%) 9 HV stress non-responder (Mage=21.56, 55.6%) 13 HV control (Mage=23.41, 50%)	Cold pressor in scanner	Conditioning task	0 min	Resp > non-resp: R ventral putamen No significant associations with medial PFC, hippocampus, paracentral lobule
Emotional tasks
Weldon et al., 2015	24 HV (Mage=37.2, 38%)	fMRI scan itself	Face processing task	0 min	WB: Fear-neutral: ↑ precuneus, ↑ lingual gyrus Anger-neutral: ↑ inferior temporal gyrus, ↑ superior parietal lobule, ↑ precuneus, ↑ rectal gyrus, ↓ cerebellar tonsil, ↓ inferior semi-lunal lobule Sad-neutral: ↑ bilateral motor cortex, ↑ posterior cingulate, ↑ R precuneus Happy-neutral: ↑ R putamen, ↑ rostral cingulate, ↑ L posterior middle temporal gyrus and precentral gyrus, ↑ bilateral precuneus, ↑ posterior cingulate, ↑ middle cingulate, ↑ cerebellum, ↑ inferior parietal lobule Faces-animals: ↑ L superior frontal gyrus
Henckens et al., 2015	118 HV (0%)	Movie clip in scanner	Face processing task	0 min	WB: Emotional faces: ↑ bilateral amygdala, ↑ hippocampus, ↑ parahippocampal gyrus, ↑ inferior temporal gyrus, Fearful vs happy: ↓ cluster in midbrain, covering the locus coeruleus, hypothalamus and amygdala↑ ROI: ↑ amygdala
Shermohammed et al., 2017	29 HV stress (Mage=21.13, 51.72%) 25 HV control (Mage=20.89, 48%)	speech stress induction task (adapted from TSST) outside scanner math stress induction task (adapted from MIST) in scanner	Cognitive Reapprasal task	Time of going into scanner for speech stressor 0 min for math stressor	WB: no significant associations
Li et al., 2019	27 HV (Mage=24.25, 0%) [25 included in cortisol analysis]	TSST outside scanner	Emotional face recognition	Time of going into scanner	ROI: ↑ L hippocampus in ll 5-HTTLPR carriers but not in ss/sl 5-HTTLPR carriers
Oei et al., 2012	17 HV control (Mage=24, 0%) 17 HV stress (Mage=24.5, 0%)	TSST outside scanner	Working memory task	Time of going into scanner	ROI: ↓ ventral system, ↓ amygdala, ↓ IFG No significant associations with dorsal system (dlPFC and LPC)
Oei et al., 2018	61 offspring (Mage=66.23, 50.8%) 43 partners (Mage=65.86, 51.2%)	TSST outside scanner	Emotional Sternberg task	15 min	ROI: ↑ L amygdala No significant associations with right amygdala, R IFG, cingulate
Van Leeuwen et al., 2018	39 HV (Mage=33.73, 0%) 29 siblings of patients with SZ (Mage=33.17, 0%)	TSST outside scanner	IAPS pictures	33 min after start stressor (stressor around 13 min)	ROI: no significant associations in HV with precuneus, mPFC, L precentral gyrus, L STG, L&R vlPFC, superior frontal gyrus, middle cingulate, anterior insula, cerebellum
Reward tasks
Porcelli et al., 2012	16 HV control (Mage=23.4, 50%) 16 HV stress (Mage=23.4, 50%)	Cold pressor in scanner	Card guessing task	0 min	WB: No significant associations
Oei et al., 2014	20 HV control (Mage=21.5, 0%) 17 HV stress (Mage=22.4, 0%)	TSST outside scanner	Backwards masked task	10 min	ROI: L&R NAcc
Maier et al., 2015	22 HV control (Mage=21, 0%) 29 HV stress (Mage=21, 0%)	SPECT outside scanner	Food choice task	12–17 min	ROI: No significant associations with amygdala, ventral striatum
Decision-making tasks
Gathmann et al., 2014	16 HV stress (Mage=23.69, 43.75%) 17 HV control (Mage=24.06, 52.9%)	TSST outside scanner	N back tast, game of dice task	around 30 min	ROI: ↓ L middle frontal gyrus-dorsolateral prefrontal area (BA 9)
Lighthall et al., 2012	23 HV stress (Mage=22.4, 48%) 24 HV control (Mage=22.4, 50%)	Cold pressor outside scanner	Balloon Analogue Risk Task	24 min after start stressor (stressor around 3 min)	ROI: ↑ dorsal striatum* No significant associations with insula
Non-emotional tasks
Qin et al., 2009	13 HV control (Mage=20, 100%) 14 HV stress (Mage =21, 100%)	Movie clip in scanner	N-back task	0 min	ROI: ↑ MPFC extending to ACC
Schwabe & Wolf, 2012	29 HV control (Mage=23.8, 50%) 30 HV stress (Mage=23.8, 50%)	SPECT outside scanner	Probabilistic classification learning task	25 min	ROI: ↑ caudate (cortisol baseline, not cortisol increase)
Vogel et al., 2016	98 HV (Mage=21.9, 0%)** Stress/placebo Control placebo Stress/MR-blocker Control/MR-blocker	SPECT outside scanner	Spatial memory task	17 (+/− 4) min	ROI: ↑ amygdala (in placebo condition)
Khalili-Mahani et al., 2010	9 HV responders (0%) 10 HV non-responders (0%)	MIST in scanner	Image recognition task	0 min	Resp > non-resp: hippocampus during encoding; R rostral ACC, L lateral PFC during recognition
Luettgau et al., 2018	29 HV (Mage=23.48, 0%)	TSST outside scanner	n-back task	around 20 min	ROI: No significant associations withdlPFC
Muehlhan et al., 2011	29 HV (Mage=23.8, 12.8%)	fMRI scan itself	Visual detection task	0 min	ROI: No significant associations with thalamus

Note: HV = healthy volunteer; TSST = Trier Social Stress Task; SPECT = cold pressor with social element; WB = whole brain; ROI = region of interest; L = left; R = right; NAcc = nucleus accumbens; ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; Resp = responder; non-resp = non-responder; PFC = prefrontal cortex; MIST = Montreal Imaging Stress Task; IFG = inferior frontal gyrus; dlPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; LPC = lateral parietal cortex; BA = Brodman area; MPFC = medial prefrontal cortex

^*Only in males

^**Only total participants was reported, not the numbers per group.