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Cognitive perception of social stress as a critical mechanistic control of mood and mood-related brain signals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2025

Henrik Jörntell Open the ORCID record for Henrik Jörntell [Opens in a new window]
Henrik Jörntell*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden henrik.jorntell@med.lu.se
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

The paper of Dunbar (2025) on social stress is a strong demonstration that stress in itself can have a purely cognitive origin. The paper shows that the cognitive system can have profound impacts on the hypothalamus. As detailed in my commentary, this opens up new avenues of how to interpret psychiatric conditions, placebo, and other associations between perceptions and vegetative functions in the brain.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e171
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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