A new paper by researchers in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa highlights the brain's response to stress that increases the likelihood of developing hypertension and  the advances made in the field to date.

In the article, published Oct. 18 in Nature Reviews Nephrology, the authors state the causes of essential hypertension—or high blood pressure—remain an enigma. But they note that advances have been made showing how the brain reacts and stores information about aversive stimuli that can lead to hypertension by changing the way the nervous system functions. Better understanding this relationship could lead to more effective treatment and prevention of hypertension.

The paper's authors are Alan Kim Johnson, F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor, and Baojian Xue, associate research scientist.

A link to the study's abstract can be found at www.nature.com/articles/s41581-018-0068-5.