Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
Adv Child Dev Behav. 2022;63:35-69. doi: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2022.03.001. Epub 2022 Jun 29.
Decades of human and animal research demonstrates that stress responsive neuroendocrine systems calibrate to the harshness of environmental conditions during fetal and early postnatal life. Emerging evidence indicates that if conditions change markedly over childhood, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis may recalibrate during puberty, another period that involves heightened neural plasticity and rapid maturation of neurobehavioral systems. These recent findings have prompted increased interest in the potential for stress system calibration/recalibration over development. To direct research in this area, this chapter integrates and discusses theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence pertaining to calibration and recalibration of the stress response. We describe how these concepts relate to other constructs, including sensitive periods, plasticity, and programming. We then consider four potential periods of calibration/recalibration: fetal, infancy, puberty, and pregnancy/lactation. In each section, we discuss evidence that the HPA and/or sympathetic medullary adrenal (SAM) system undergoes developmental change, rendering it more plastic and amenable to shift its activity in response to environmental conditions. We also review findings that the impacts of environmental harshness on stress responding persist beyond these periods. We then articulate that marked change in the quality of the environment (from harsh to benign or vice versa) is required in order for recalibration to occur, and that recalibration would result in shifts in stress responding to more closely align with the profiles of individuals who have experienced these conditions throughout life. Finally, we reflect on whether recalibration of the HPA and SAM system may extend to the other stress-responsive neurobehavioral systems.
数十年的人类和动物研究表明，应激反应的神经内分泌系统会根据胎儿和出生后早期的环境条件进行调整。新出现的证据表明，如果儿童期的环境条件发生显著变化，下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴可能会在青春期重新调整，青春期是另一个涉及神经可塑性增强和神经行为系统快速成熟的时期。这些最近的发现促使人们越来越关注应激系统在发育过程中的校准/重新校准的潜力。为了指导该领域的研究，本章整合并讨论了与应激反应的校准和重新校准相关的理论观点和实证证据。我们描述了这些概念如何与其他结构相关，包括敏感时期、可塑性和编程。然后，我们考虑了四个潜在的校准/重新校准时期：胎儿期、婴儿期、青春期和怀孕/哺乳期。在每个部分，我们讨论了证据表明 HPA 和/或交感神经肾上腺髓质（SAM）系统发生了发育变化，使其更具可塑性，并能够根据环境条件改变其活动。我们还回顾了发现，环境恶劣对压力反应的影响会持续到这些时期之外。然后，我们阐明，为了进行重新校准，需要环境质量发生明显变化（从恶劣到良性，反之亦然），并且重新校准会导致压力反应发生变化，更接近经历过这些条件的个体的特征。最后，我们反思 HPA 和 SAM 系统的重新校准是否可能扩展到其他应激反应的神经行为系统。
