Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) affect various processes related to emotion processing, including emotional memory, fear extinction, and the cortisol response to stress. Despite the modulating role of HCs on the stress response in women and variance in synthetic hormone levels across the HC cycle, little is known about the phase-related effects of HCs on the brain's response to stress. We investigated the effect of HC cycle phase on functional connectivity of memory- and emotion-related regions at rest after exposure to a stressor. Twenty HC users completed two sessions of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging after exposure to the cold pressor test, one during the hormone-present HC phase (when synthetic hormones are taken) and one during the hormone-absent HC phase (when synthetic hormones are not taken). Women showed higher functional connectivity between left amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex during the hormone-present phase. During the hormone-absent phase, women showed higher coupling between left parahippocampus and right superior lateral occipital cortex. Our results suggest that the synthetic hormones contained in HCs may protect against the negative effects of stress on functional connectivity of emotional processing regions.

激素避孕药 (HC) 影响与情绪处理相关的各种过程，包括情绪记忆、恐惧消退和皮质醇对压力的反应。尽管 HC 对女性的压力反应具有调节作用，并且在整个 HC 周期中合成激素水平存在差异，但人们对 HC 对大脑压力反应的阶段相关影响知之甚少。我们研究了 HC 周期阶段对暴露于压力源后休息时的记忆和情绪相关区域的功能连接的影响。 20 名 HC 用户在接受冷加压测试后完成了两次静息态功能磁共振成像，一次是在激素存在的 HC 阶段（服用合成激素时），另一次是在激素缺失的 HC 阶段（当服用合成激素时）没有被采取）。在激素存在阶段，女性左杏仁核和腹内侧前额叶皮层之间表现出更高的功能连接。在激素缺乏阶段，女性左侧海马旁回和右侧枕叶上外侧皮质之间表现出较高的耦合度。我们的结果表明，HC 中含有的合成激素可以防止压力对情绪处理区域功能连接的负面影响。