Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA.
Auton Neurosci. 2010 Aug 25;156(1-2):44-50. doi: 10.1016/j.autneu.2010.03.003. Epub 2010 Mar 27.
Negative social interactions produce several detrimental consequences in humans and non-human animals; and conversely, positive social interactions may have stress-buffering effects on both behavior and physiology. However, the mechanisms underlying specific stressor-responsiveness in the context of the social environment are not well understood. The present study investigated the integration of behavior, cardiac function, and Fos-immunoreactivity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus during an acute social stressor in female, socially monogamous prairie voles exposed to previous long-term pairing (control conditions) or isolation. Animals previously exposed to social isolation displayed increased heart rate, attenuated heart rate variability, and increased incidence of cardiac arrhythmias during an acute crowding stressor versus animals previously exposed to social pairing; these cardiac alterations were not secondary to behavioral changes during the crowding stressor. Furthermore, social isolation was associated with increased c-Fos-immunoreactivity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus following the crowding stressor, versus social pairing. The prairie vole provides a useful model for understanding how the social environment contributes to changes in behavior, cardiac function, and central stress-regulatory processes in humans.
负面的社会互动会给人类和非人类动物带来多种不良后果；相反，积极的社会互动可能对行为和生理都有压力缓冲作用。然而，在社会环境背景下，特定压力源反应的机制还不是很清楚。本研究在雌性、社会性一夫一妻制的草原田鼠中，探讨了急性社会应激下行为、心脏功能和下丘脑室旁核 Fos 免疫反应的整合，这些田鼠之前经历过长时间配对（对照条件）或隔离。与之前经历过社会配对的动物相比，之前经历过社会隔离的动物在急性拥挤应激时心率加快、心率变异性减弱、心律失常发生率增加；这些心脏变化不是拥挤应激时行为变化的次要原因。此外，与社会配对相比，社会隔离与拥挤应激后下丘脑室旁核中 c-Fos 免疫反应增加有关。草原田鼠为理解社会环境如何影响人类的行为、心脏功能和中枢应激调节过程提供了一个有用的模型。
