1. Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to foraging uncertainty: A model of individual vs. social allostasis and the 'Superorganism Hypothesis'
- Author
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Eric L. P. Smith, Leonard A. Rosenblum, Jeremy D. Coplan, Nishant K. Gupta, Asif Karim, Anna Rozenboym, and John G. Kral
- Subjects
Hydrocortisone ,Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone ,Physiology ,lcsh:Medicine ,Pituitary-Adrenal System ,Monkeys ,Biochemistry ,Nervous System ,Corticotropin-releasing hormone ,Families ,0302 clinical medicine ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Homeostasis ,Lipid Hormones ,Foraging ,lcsh:Science ,Maternal Behavior ,Children ,Cerebrospinal Fluid ,Mammals ,Multidisciplinary ,biology ,Animal Behavior ,Uncertainty ,Allostasis ,Allostatic load ,Body Fluids ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,Animal Sociality ,Vertebrates ,Female ,Anatomy ,Infants ,Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis ,hormones, hormone substitutes, and hormone antagonists ,Macaque ,medicine.drug ,Research Article ,Primates ,medicine.medical_specialty ,endocrine system ,Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System ,03 medical and health sciences ,Internal medicine ,Old World monkeys ,medicine ,Animals ,Bonnet macaque ,Steroid Hormones ,Behavior ,lcsh:R ,Superorganism ,Organisms ,Biology and Life Sciences ,Feeding Behavior ,biology.organism_classification ,Hormones ,030227 psychiatry ,Endocrinology ,Macaca radiata ,Age Groups ,People and Places ,Amniotes ,lcsh:Q ,Population Groupings ,Physiological Processes ,Zoology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Introduction Food insecurity is a major global contributor to developmental origins of adult disease. The allostatic load of maternal food uncertainty from variable foraging demand (VFD) activates corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) without eliciting hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activation measured on a group level. Individual homeostatic adaptations of the HPA axis may subserve second-order homeostasis, a process we provisionally term “social allostasis.” We postulate that maternal food insecurity induces a “superorganism” state through coordination of individual HPA axis response. Methods Twenty-four socially-housed bonnet macaque maternal-infant dyads were exposed to 16 weeks of alternating two-week epochs of low or high foraging demand shown to compromise normative maternal-infant rearing. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) CRF concentrations and plasma cortisol were measured pre- and post-VFD. Dyadic distance was measured, and blinded observers performed pre-VFD social ranking assessments. Results Despite marked individual cortisol responses (mean change = 20%) there was an absence of maternal HPA axis group mean response to VFD (0%). Whereas individual CSF CRF concentrations change = 56%, group mean did increase 25% (p = 0.002). Our "dyadic vulnerability" index (low infant weight, low maternal weight, subordinate maternal social status and reduced dyadic distance) predicted maternal cortisol decreases (p < 0.0001) whereas relatively “advantaged” dyads exhibited maternal cortisol increases in response to VFD exposure. Comment In response to a chronic stressor, relative dyadic vulnerability plays a significant role in determining the directionality and magnitude of individual maternal HPA axis responses in the service of maintaining a “superorganism” version of HPA axis homeostasis, provisionally termed “social allostasis.”
- Published
- 2017