Millions of women worldwide use oral contraceptives (i.e., birth control pill; OCs), often starting during puberty/adolescence; however, it is unknown how OC use during this critical period of development affects the brain, especially with regard to emotional working memory. Here, we examined stress reactivity, and brain structure and function in OC users using the Trier Social Stress Test and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Our results show that OC use during puberty/adolescence gives rise to a blunted stress response and alters brain activation during working memory processing. OC use, in general, is also linked to increased prefrontal brain activation during working memory processing for negatively arousing stimuli. OC use is also related to significant structural changes in brain regions implicated in memory and emotional processing. Together, these findings highlight that OC use induces changes to brain structure and function and alters stress reactivity. These findings may provide a mechanistic insight for the increased vulnerability to mood-related mental illness in women after OC use.

全世界数以百万计的妇女使用口服避孕药（即避孕药； OCs），通常是在青春期/青春期开始服用；然而，尚不清楚在这个关键的发展时期内使用OC如何影响大脑，尤其是在情感工作记忆方面。在这里，我们使用特里尔社交压力测试以及结构和功能磁共振成像（MRI）检查了OC用户的压力反应性以及大脑结构和功能。我们的研究结果表明，青春期/青春期使用OC会产生钝化的压力反应，并在工作记忆处理过程中改变大脑的激活状态。通常，OC的使用还与工作记忆处理过程中前额叶大脑激活的增加有关，以引起负面刺激。OC的使用还与记忆和情绪加工相关的大脑区域的重大结构变化有关。总之，这些发现表明，OC的使用会引起大脑结构和功能的改变，并改变压力反应性。这些发现可能为使用OC后女性易患与情绪有关的精神疾病的脆弱性提供了机械的见解。