Dettmer Amanda M, Wooddell Lauren J, Rosenberg Kendra L, Kaburu Stefano S K, Novak Melinda A, Meyer Jerrold S, Suomi Stephen J
a Laboratory of Comparative Ethology , Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health , Poolesville , MD , USA.
b Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences , University of Massachusetts Amherst , Amherst , MA , USA.
Soc Neurosci. 2017 Feb;12(1):92-101. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2016.1176952. Epub 2016 Apr 25.
Early life experience and socioeconomic status (SES) are well-established predictors of health outcomes in people. Both factors likely influence health outcomes via hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis regulation. However, it is unclear how early experience and HPA axis activity influence adult social status. We studied differentially reared female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta, N = 90) as models to test the hypothesis that chronic HPA axis activity assessed via hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) mediated the relationship between early life experience and adult social rank. We found that mother-peer-reared (MPR) monkeys acquired higher social ranks than either of the two nursery-reared (NR) groups (peer-reared, PR, or surrogate-peer-reared, SPR monkeys) (β = -0.07, t = -2.16, p = 0.034). We also found that MPR HCCs were lower during the juvenile period at 18 months (F = 3.49, p = 0.047). Furthermore, for MPR but not NR monkeys, changes in HCCs from 18 to 24 months (r = -0.627, p = 0.039) and adult HCCs (r = -0.321, p = 0.03) were negatively correlated with adult social rank. These findings suggest that chronic HPA axis regulation in juvenility, and perhaps in adulthood, may influence adult social status for primates that experience typical early rearing. However, early life adversity may result in dissociation between neuroendocrine stress regulation and adult social competence, which may be risk factors for adverse health outcomes.
早期生活经历和社会经济地位（SES）是已被充分证实的人类健康结果预测因素。这两个因素都可能通过下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺（HPA）轴调节来影响健康结果。然而，目前尚不清楚早期经历和HPA轴活动如何影响成年后的社会地位。我们以差异饲养的雌性恒河猴（猕猴，N = 90）为模型，来检验通过毛发皮质醇浓度（HCCs）评估的慢性HPA轴活动介导早期生活经历与成年社会等级之间关系的假设。我们发现，由母亲和同伴饲养（MPR）的猴子比两组由保育所饲养（NR）的猴子（同伴饲养，PR，或代孕同伴饲养，SPR猴子）获得了更高的社会等级（β = -0.07，t = -2.16，p = 0.034）。我们还发现，MPR猴子在18个月的幼年时期HCCs较低（F = 3.49，p = 0.047）。此外，对于MPR猴子而非NR猴子，18至24个月期间HCCs的变化（r = -0.627，p = 0.039）和成年后的HCCs（r = -0.321，p = 0.03）与成年社会等级呈负相关。这些发现表明，幼年时期，或许成年期的慢性HPA轴调节，可能会影响经历典型早期饲养的灵长类动物的成年社会地位。然而，早期生活逆境可能导致神经内分泌应激调节与成年社会能力之间的脱节，这可能是不良健康结果的风险因素。
