SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND STRESS

社会关系和压力

基本信息

批准号：
3429419
负责人：
DEBORAH A GUST
金额：
$ 8.74万
依托单位：
EMORY UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
1990
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
1990-05-01 至 1992-04-30
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

Stress is a concept that has been extensively investigated, although no one definition has been widely accepted. Individuals vary in what they perceive as a stressor and the physiological consequences of a stressful situation are diverse. SEveral factors influence response to a potentially aversive situation, including the control and predictability of the stimuli, prior experience, and the asocial support available. A lack of social supper has been correlated with increased risk of morbidity and mortality in humans and increased pituitary-adrenocortical activity and decreased immune capacity in animals. Using rhesus monkeys, the proposed investigation will focus on a longitudinal comparison of two social groups: one having an established social support network and one newly formed group absent such a network. This approach will further our understanding of the way in which social factors, such as aggression and competition, may induce stress as well as the way in which positive social behaviors, such as grooming, may modulate an animal's response to aversive situations. By relating behavioral measures of changing social relationships to pituitary- adrenocortical activity, we will quantify the progression of developing relationships in the newly formed group and describe fluctuations associated with reproductive status in the established group Further, we will compare subjects' reproductive parameters and maternal competence across groups and relate the differences to social and hormonal variables. Based on observations recorded, we will construct a behavioral index during the initial stages of the study which we will use to predict pituitary- adrenocortical activity in subsequent stages. Physiological challenges and experimental manipulations will complement the preceding descriptive phase of the study. We will evaluate pituitary and adrenal responsivity and dexamethasone resistance in relation to basal hormone and behavioral data. In addition, subjects will be exposed to a novel area alone and with companions and to infant separation while isolated or in the presence of social companions. Finally, we will remove animals from their social group and place them in a single cage to monitor hormonal behavioral changes over time. This study will provide a quantitative evaluation of the role social relationships play in influencing pituitary-adrenocortical responsivity, maternal competency, and reproductive function using an animal model which will control for factors such as nutrition and drug use which often confound human clinical studies. The studies outlined in this proposal will provide longitudinal reference data, heretofor lacking, on pituitary- adrenocortical activity associated with social context and reproductive state complemented with discrete experimental procedures to elucidate the relationship of social factors and the behavioral and hormonal correlates of stress.

压力是一个已被广泛研究的概念，尽管没有人定义已被广泛接受。每个人的情况有所不同被视为压力源以及压力的生理后果情况多种多样。有几个因素会影响对潜在问题的反应令人厌恶的情况，包括对事物的控制和可预测性刺激、先前的经验和可用的反社会支持。缺乏社交晚餐与发病风险增加相关人类死亡率和垂体肾上腺皮质活动增加动物的免疫能力下降。使用恒河猴，建议调查将侧重于两个社会群体的纵向比较：一个拥有已建立的社会支持网络和一个新成立的团体没有这样的网络。这种方法将加深我们对攻击性和竞争等社会因素可能诱发压力以及积极的社会行为的方式，例如梳理毛发可以调节动物对令人厌恶的情况的反应。经过将改变社会关系的行为措施与垂体联系起来肾上腺皮质活动，我们将量化发育的进展新形成的群体中的关系并描述波动与既定群体的生殖状况相关此外，我们将比较受试者的生殖参数和母性能力跨群体并将差异与社会和荷尔蒙变量联系起来。根据记录的观察结果，我们将构建一个行为指数我们将用它来预测垂体的研究的初始阶段- 随后阶段的肾上腺皮质活动。生理挑战和实验操作将补充前面的描述阶段研究的。我们将评估垂体和肾上腺的反应性，与基础激素和行为数据相关的地塞米松耐药性。此外，受试者将单独接触一个新的区域并与同伴和婴儿在隔离或有其他人在场时分离社交伙伴。最后，我们将把动物从它们的社会群体中移除并将它们放在一个笼子里以监测荷尔蒙行为变化时间。本研究将对社会作用进行定量评估关系在影响垂体-肾上腺皮质反应性中发挥作用，使用动物模型研究母体能力和生殖功能将控制营养和药物使用等因素，这些因素通常混淆人类临床研究。本提案中概述的研究将提供迄今为止缺乏的关于垂体的纵向参考数据与社会背景和生殖相关的肾上腺皮质活动状态辅以离散的实验程序来阐明社会因素与行为和荷尔蒙相关因素的关系的压力。