ABSTRACT
The stress reaction is a common feature of all living beings. Within the animal kingdom including humans, perception of all changes in the external or internal environments elicits a chain of physiological reactions that can be construed as adaptive to the organism. Many of the developments in psychological and psychoneuroendocrine stress research remained unnoticed for the students of the neuroendocrinology of stress. This chapter discusses the integrated neuroendocrine response with special reference to the importance of conditioned aspects of the phenomenon. A wide array of stimuli has been used to investigate stress mechanisms in animals and in humans. The primary or acute neuroendocrine stress response can simply be described as the organism’s first reaction to mostly unknown or unexpected challenge. The conditioned neuroendocrine stress response patterns share a number of similarities with the primary hormonal responses. However, the aversive character of physically damaging stressors is transferred to subtle compound sensory cues or contextual stimuli signaling danger.
