ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychopathology
This article is part of the Research TopicStress-induced Psychopathology: From Mechanisms to Interventions: Volume IIView all 7 articles
Social and Physiological Stress Elicit Divergent Psycho-physiological Dynamics and Motor Cortex Activation
Provisionally accepted
Maria Koriakina*
Mihail Lukov
Uliana Nikishkina
Aleksander Sergeevich KirsanovEkaterina Ignatenko
Evgueni Blagovechtchenski- Laboratory of Behavioural Neurodynamics, Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The investigation of question whether a characteristic stress response pattern can be assessed through the level of motor cortex activation. This study compared the distinct effects of socio-psychological (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) and physiological (Cold Pressor Test, CPT) stressors on the dynamics on heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and subjective emotional state dynamics. The study had two primary objectives: (1) to assess the differential effects of these stressors by comparing the temporal dynamics of both physiological and psychological parameters; and (2) to estimate the relationship between corticospinal excitability and peripheral autonomic responses during stress. Motor evoked potentials from first dorsal interosseous were induced by stimulation of the primary motor cortex using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the temporal changes in all measures were analyzed at three time points: pre-stress baseline, immediately post-stress, and after a 15-minute recovery period. Psychological stress induced a sustained increase in tension, a decrease in positive affect, and a prolonged peripheral activation (e.g., in HR, systolic BP). In contrast, physiological stress elicited a transient reaction, followed by rapid normalization and even a subsequent decrease in some psychophysiological indices. Analysis of subjective psychological reports showed that the TSST in-creased self-reported tension and decreased positive affect, in contrast to the CPT, which led to a reduction in tension and anxious-depressive emotions. TMS-measured cortico-spinal excitability showed a direct covariation with heart rate, indicating a tight functional coupling between the motor and autonomic nervous systems during physiological stress.
Keywords: Autonomic Nervous System, Blood Pressure, cold pressor test, corticospinal excitability, Heartrate variability, Motor evoked Potentials, Psychophysiology, stress response
Received: 04 Dec 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Koriakina, Lukov, Nikishkina, Kirsanov, Ignatenko and Blagovechtchenski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Maria Koriakina
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.