Annie T. Ginty, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Psychology & Neuroscience Baylor University

  • Waco TX

Expert on peripheral nervous system & cardiovascular responses to stress & their relationship with unhealthy behaviors & future disease

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1 min

Baylor Psychology, Neuroscience Expert Discusses Benefits of Exercise During Times of Stress, COVID-19 During TV Interview

Annie Ginty, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University was interviewed by Waco, Texas' KXXV for a story about the benefits of exercise during times of stress -specifically during this time of coronavirus (COVID-19).  During the interview with reporter Erin Heft, Ginty said: “Some research from our lab at Baylor has shown that people who exercise more, when they are faced with some thing that makes them feel stressful or anxious, they actually perceive that is more helpful, so the feeling of anxiety makes them feel they’re able to cope with that situation" "Exercise is a good stress on our body, because what it’s doing, our systems are changing, it’s increasing heart rate, it’s adrenaline. But everything’s increasing in balance, so our body is maintaining homeostasis." To view the complete story, visit KXXV's website.

Annie T. Ginty, Ph.D.

5 min

Baylor University Videos Offer Insights on Causes of Psychological Stress, Effects on the Body and How to Cope

Whether making the transition to college, starting a new job, ending a relationship or retiring, change can cause psychological stress, which in turn can make for wear and tear on the body. The good news is, we can develop coping mechanisms to reduce stress and live happier, healthier lives, say Baylor University psychologist Annie Ginty, Ph.D., and her University of California-Irvine collaborator, Sarah Pressman, Ph.D. Using a grant from AXA Research Fund — which supports projects in health, environment, new technology and socioeconomics — Ginty and Pressman produced three short videos to help students and the general public understand what stress is, what it does to our bodies and how to handle it. The videos stem from a two-year AXA postdoctoral research fellowship by Ginty, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. She investigated the relationship between biological responses to stress and adaptation during a stressful transition, particularly students’ adjustment to college. The videos, 1 to 3 minutes each, are housed on AXA’s YouTube channel and bear Baylor's new logo. “Psychological stress is bad for health; exercise stress is good,” said Ginty, who works with nonprofits to serve at-risk adolescents by providing high-intensity interval training workouts to reduce stress and improve health. “When we think about exercise, your heart rate and metabolic system increase, meaning you’re breathing harder. The rest of your muscle physiology is changing. Your body is working together to maintain homeostasis for balance. This is good stress,” she said. “But with psychological stress, the heart works much harder than the rest of the body. That metabolic imbalance can be hard on the heart and make the body more vulnerable to disease.” In the videos, Baylor students discuss the causes of psychological stress in their lives, how their bodies react and ways they handle stress. For them, a college education poses looming deadlines, fear of living up to expectations, anxiety about tests and adjusting to a new atmosphere. In the first video — "Stress and Your Health" — they describe such reactions as higher heart rate, restlessness, loss of sleep, skin breakouts, headaches and tense muscles. “If I fail at a test, I then in my mind see myself not getting into medical school, which is a pretty big domino effect,” said Devin Mangold of Wolfforth, Texas, a senior neuroscience major in the Honors College at Baylor. Such stressors can take a toll on moods and emotions, putting the physiological stress system into overdrive and possibly becoming a threat to long-term physical health — which in turn creates more stress. The second video — "Effects of Stress on Your Body" — explores how stress can affect emotions and the body. Stressed people may become anxious, sad, worried and angry. The stressors can interfere with sleep and can leave less time to exercise. People also tend to eat foods with higher fat and higher carbohydrates, said Pressman, associate professor of psychological science at UC-Irvine. That can lead to muscle tension, which can translate into injury. The third video — "Coping with Stress" — is about the importance of coping mechanisms so that minor stressors don’t turn into serious health issues. Social networking has been shown by research to reduce the effects of stress in such ways as lowering blood pressure. The best ways to cope are physical activity, a healthy diet and cognitive reappraisal. “Cognitive reappraisal” is “a fancy way of saying we’re changing how we interpret our situation,” said Danielle Young, Psy.D., clinical research coordinator of the Baylor Behavioral Medicine Laboratory in the department of psychology and neuroscience department. “It’s the difference between saying, ‘This is going to be the hardest test ever, and I’m going to fail’ and ‘This is going to be a hard test, but I’m going to do the best I can.’ Even that slight shift in thought can make you less stressed.” A recent study by Ginty of 230-plus Baylor students examined the effect of reappraising stress. “We found that if we gave brief instructions about how increases in heart rate during stress mean they were ‘ready’ and were not a ‘bad thing,’ people rated their levels of anxiety as more helpful to their performance,” Ginty said. The video encourages individuals to experiment with coping techniques that work for them. Students who appear in the video suggest methods from working out to cooking to reading to walking their dogs. “My natural demeanor is laid back, but internally, I stress myself,” said senior neuroscience major Simba Masando of Harare, Zimbabwe. Early in college, he “just went headfirst into the material” of a capstone course. “Now as a senior, I’m doing some preliminary courses I’m not necessarily interested in, but they’re required. I’ve alleviated some pressure in the major, but some of the requirements are a little more worrisome.” As a member of Baylor Behavioral Medicine Lab, what he’s learned about stress oping has been “greatly helpful” as he looks ahead to post-graduate school and his eventual goal of opening a school in Zimbabwe. “I’m an avid learner,” he said. “School is my job, as I see it, but my hobbies are learning, too. In basketball, there’s always a new move I want to learn; in piano, there’s a new technique. If you take the piano away from me, I’ll try guitar. And if you take basketball away from me, I’ll try tennis.” ABOUT ANNIE GINTY Research articles by Annie Ginty, Ph.D., include: “The behavioural, cognitive, and neural corollaries of blunted cardiovascular and cortisol reactions to acute psychological stress,” published in  ; “Challenge and threat imagery manipulates heart rate and anxiety responses to stress,” published in  ; and “Depression and anxiety are associated with a diagnosis of hypertension 5 years later in a cohort of late middle-aged men and women” published in  ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution. It provides a vibrant campus community for more than 17,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries to study a broad range of degrees among 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s oldest and largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments and seven academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit www.baylor.edu/artsandsciences.

Annie T. Ginty, Ph.D.

Media

Biography

Dr. Ginty completed her Ph.D. in Behavioral Medicine at University of Birmingham. She was awarded the University of Birmingham’s Ratcliffe Prize for best PhD in science. Her Ph.D. work examined the behavioral and neural correlates of diminished cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress. Dr. Ginty was then awarded a two-year AXA Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to investigate the relationship between biological responses to stress and adaptation during a stressful life transition. Dr. Ginty then completed a T32 Fellowship in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ginty joined the Baylor Faculty in Fall 2016.

Dr. Ginty was named a Rising Star by the American Psychological Association in 2017. Dr. Ginty is actively conducting research examining the relationship between psychological stress and disease. Additionally, she works with local non-profit organizations serving at risk adolescents to provide interventions (i.e., high intensity interval training workouts) that reduce stress and improve health.

How does the brain link psychological experiences, such as stress, with cognitive, biological, and behavioral changes that matter for health? This question is at the heart of Dr. Ginty’s research program which integrates neuroimaging, psychophysiological, neuroendocrine, and epidemiological methods. Her particular focus is on the neurobiology of peripheral nervous system and cardiovascular responses to stress and their relationship with unhealthy behaviors and future disease.

Areas of Expertise

Pyschological Stress and Disease
Cardiovascular Medicine
The Nervous System

Education

University of Birmingham (UK)

Ph.D.

Behavioral Medicine

Allegheny College

B.S.

Neuroscience & Psychology

Media Appearances

Baylor Researcher Explores the Resiliency of the Blackfeet Community

Newswise  online

2023-11-27

Annie T. Ginty, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, will explore the resiliency of the Blackfeet American Indian community and the potential health effects related to childhood and historical trauma. Baylor University, Blackfeet Community College and Montana State University-Bozeman were awarded a $3.37 million research grant from The National Institutes of Health to explore the issue.

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Stress less – it might protect you from Covid

The Conversation  online

2021-12-19

Annie Ginty, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, and a colleague from the University of California-Irvine write about how stress increases the chance of getting sick, a particular concern during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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New Research Shows That ‘Hypersensitive’ People May Be Better At Handling Stress

The Medium  online

2021-03-29

A Baylor University study led by Annie Ginty, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, found that people who showed a more intense response to stress before the COVID-19 pandemic were less likely to experience PTSD after it started.

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Research Focus

Academic Interests and Research

How does the brain link psychological experiences, such as stress, with cognitive, biological, and behavioral changes that matter for health? This question is at the heart of Dr. Ginty’s research program which integrates neuroimaging, psychophysiological, neuroendocrine, and epidemiological methods. Her particular focus is on the neurobiology of peripheral nervous system and cardiovascular responses to stress and their relationship with unhealthy behaviors and future disease.

Articles

Diminished cardiovascular stress reactivity is associated with lower levels of social participation

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Neha A John-Henderson, Cory J Counts, Courtney S Sanders, Annie T Ginty

2019

We aimed to examine whether diminished cardiovascular reactivity in response to an acute lab stressor was associated with reported social participation. The analyses were conducted using publicly available data from the Pittsburgh Cold Study 3 (PCS3).

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Increased stressor‐evoked cardiovascular reactivity is associated with reduced amygdala and hippocampus volume

Psychophysiology

Annie Ginty et al.

2019

Exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity to acute psychological stress is associated with an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The amygdala and hippocampus have been implicated in centrally mediating stressor‐evoked cardiovascular reactivity. However, little is known about the associations of amygdala and hippocampus morphology with stressor‐evoked cardiovascular reactivity. Forty (Mage = 19.05, SD = 0.22 years) healthy young women completed two separate testing sessions. Session 1 assessed multiple parameters of cardiovascular physiology at rest and during a validated psychological stress task (Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test), using electrocardiography, Doppler echocardiography, and blood pressure monitoring. In Session 2, 1 year later, structural MRI was conducted. Brain structural volumes were computed using automated segmentation methods. Regression analyses, following Benjamini‐Hochberg correction, showed that greater heart rate and cardiac output reactivity were associated with reduced amygdala and hippocampus gray matter volume. Systolic blood pressure reactivity was associated with reduced hippocampus volume. In contrast, no associations between diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure, stroke volume, or total peripheral resistance reactivity with amygdala or hippocampus volumes were apparent. Comparison analyses examining insula volume found no significant associations. Some indicators of greater stressor‐evoked cardiovascular reactivity associate with reduced amygdala and hippocampus gray matter volume, but the mechanisms of this association warrant further study.

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