The Neural Correlates of Burnout: A Systematic Review

Burnout is a condition that results from chronic work-related stress, and it is associated with impairments in cognitive and emotion-related functions, such as impaired executive functions and emotion regulation. This thesis aimed to conduct a systematic review of the neural correlates of burnout. The thesis investigates the following research question: do the neural correlates of burnout involve the same brain regions and/or functions as those implicated in the cognitive functions affected by burnout? The systematic literature search resulted in seven studies which studied either the functional, structural, or electrophysiological correlates of burnout. The results showed that burnout involves functional and structural alterations in regions involved in various higher-order cognitive functions. Structural findings indicate alterations in brain regions involved with emotion processing, memory and attention (i.e., medial prefrontal cortex, caudate, amygdala). Electrophysiological findings indicate differences in alpha power in burnout individuals compared to controls, suggesting that alpha power is reduced when burnout's specific symptoms (i.e., exhaustion) increase. Evident are also findings on functional differences in working memory (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and reduced functional connectivity between emotion processing areas (the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex) and areas such as the motor cortex. The presented findings answer the research question. It can be concluded that the brain regions implicated in the cognitive functions affected by burnout resemble many of the regions affected in the neural correlates of burnout. Future studies should take into account the methodological issues of the existing studies