The Neuroendocrine Impact of Acute Stress on Synaptic Plasticity.

Stress induces changes in nervous system function on different signaling levels, from molecular signaling to synaptic transmission to neural circuits to behavior, and on different time scales, from rapid onset and transient to delayed and long lasting. The principal effectors of stress plasticity are glucocorticoids, steroid hormones that act with a broad range of signaling competency due to the expression of multiple nuclear and membrane receptor subtypes in virtually every tissue of the organism. Glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors are localized to each of the cellular compartments, the membrane, cytosol, and nucleus, of the receptor-expressing cells. In this review, we cover the neuroendocrine effects of stress, focusing mainly, though not exclusively, on the rapid actions of acute stress-induced glucocorticoids that effect changes in synaptic transmission and neuronal excitability by modulating synaptic and intrinsic neuronal properties via activation of presumed membrane glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptors. We describe the synaptic plasticity that occurs in four stress-associated brain structures, the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, in response to single or short-term stress exposure. The rapid transformative impact of glucocorticoids makes this stress signal a particularly potent effector of acute neuronal plasticity.