Sapolsky Robert M
Departments of Biological Sciences, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, Stanford University, Gilbert Lab MC 5020, Stanford, CA, 94305-5020, USA.
Neurobiol Stress. 2021 Mar 20;14:100320. doi: 10.1016/j.ynstr.2021.100320. eCollection 2021 May.
The adrenocortical stress-response is extraordinarily conserved across mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians, suggesting that it has been present during the hundreds of millions of years of vertebrate existence. Given that antiquity, it is relatively recent that primate social complexity has evolved to the point that, uniquely, life can be dominated by chronic psychosocial stress. This paper first reviews adrenocortical evolution during vertebrate history. This produces a consistent theme of there being an evolutionary tradeoff between the protective effects of glucocorticoids during an ongoing physical stressor, versus the adverse long-term consequences of excessive glucocorticoid secretion; how this tradeoff is resolved depends on particular life history strategies of populations, species and vertebrate taxa. This contrasts with adrenocortical evolution in socially complex primates, who mal-adaptively activate the classic vertebrate stress-response during chronic psychosocial stress. This emphasizes the rather unique and ongoing selective forces sculpting the stress-response in primates, including humans.
肾上腺皮质应激反应在哺乳动物、鸟类、鱼类、爬行动物和两栖动物中高度保守，这表明它在数亿年的脊椎动物生存过程中一直存在。鉴于其古老性，灵长类动物的社会复杂性发展到独特的程度，即生活可能被慢性心理社会压力所主导，这是相对较新的现象。本文首先回顾脊椎动物历史上肾上腺皮质的进化。这产生了一个一致的主题，即在持续的身体应激源期间糖皮质激素的保护作用与糖皮质激素分泌过多的长期不良后果之间存在进化权衡；这种权衡如何解决取决于种群、物种和脊椎动物类群的特定生活史策略。这与社会复杂的灵长类动物的肾上腺皮质进化形成对比，它们在慢性心理社会压力期间会不适应地激活经典的脊椎动物应激反应。这强调了塑造包括人类在内的灵长类动物应激反应的相当独特且持续的选择力量。
