scholarly journals New Perspectives in the Model of Stress Response

2017 ◽  
pp. S173-S185 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. TONHAJZEROVA ◽  
M. MESTANIK
Keyword(s):  
Stress Response ◽  
Complex Analysis ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Biofeedback Training ◽  
Human Organism ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Promising Tool ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
As Stress

The reactions of human organism to changes of internal or external environment termed as stress response have been at the center of interest during recent decades. Several theories were designed to describe the regulatory mechanisms which maintain the stability of vital physiological functions under conditions of threat or other environmental challenges. However, most of the models of stress reactivity were focused on specific aspects of the regulatory outcomes – physiological (e.g. neuroendocrine), psychological or behavioral regulation. Recently, a novel complex theory based on evolutionary and developmental biology has been introduced. The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress response employs a broad range of the findings from previous theories of stress and analyzes the responsivity to stress with respect to interindividual differences as a consequence of conditional adaptation – the ability to modify developmental trajectory to match the conditions of the social and physical environment. This review summarizes the contributions of the most important models in the field of stress response and emphasizes the importance of complex analysis of the psycho-physiological mechanisms. Moreover, it outlines the implications for nonpharmacological treatment of stress-related disorders with the application of biofeedback training as a promising tool based on voluntary modification of neurophysiological functions.

Beyond allostatic load: Rethinking the role of stress in regulating human development

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce J. Ellis ◽  
Marco Del Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Allostatic Load ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Load Model ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Response Systems

AbstractHow do exposures to stress affect biobehavioral development and, through it, psychiatric and biomedical disorder? In the health sciences, the allostatic load model provides a widely accepted answer to this question: stress responses, while essential for survival, have negative long-term effects that promote illness. Thus, the benefits of mounting repeated biological responses to threat are traded off against costs to mental and physical health. The adaptive calibration model, an evolutionary–developmental theory of stress–health relations, extends this logic by conceptualizing these trade-offs as decision nodes in allocation of resources. Each decision node influences the next in a chain of resource allocations that become instantiated in the regulatory parameters of stress response systems. Over development, these parameters filter and embed information about key dimensions of environmental stress and support, mediating the organism's openness to environmental inputs, and function to regulate life history strategies to match those dimensions. Drawing on the adaptive calibration model, we propose that consideration of biological fitness trade-offs, as delineated by life history theory, is needed to more fully explain the complex relations between developmental exposures to stress, stress responsivity, behavioral strategies, and health. We conclude that the adaptive calibration model and allostatic load model are only partially complementary and, in some cases, support different approaches to intervention. In the long run, the field may be better served by a model informed by life history theory that addresses the adaptive role of stress response systems in regulating alternative developmental pathways.

scholarly journals Hybrid Behavior-Genetic Models of the Confounding Gene-Environment Correlations in the Development of Life History Strategy: Two Convergent Approaches

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Aurelio José Figueredo ◽  
Tomás Cabeza de Baca ◽  
George B Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Life History Strategy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Developmental Trajectory ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
Environmental Measures

Traditional theories of development and evolutionary developmental psychology propose that early environmental experiences shape an individual’s developmental trajectory. According to the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM), for example, calibration of speed of life history strategy to ecological cues encountered during development contributes to behavior that is conditionally adaptive to the organism’s environment. These theories emphasize the role of environmental influences and typically do not use designs that control potential genetic confounds. To address this methodological problem, the current study used a genetically informative design to test whether the phenotypic associations of parental instability and abuse with a slow life history factor were confounded by common genetic factors. We analyzed twin and singleton data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Survey using two convergent structural equation modeling approaches. Both approaches suggest that, when accounting for shared genetic variance across instability, abuse, and slow life history, some hypothesized environmental pathways between the early environmental measures and slow life history were not required. Once genetic factors were controlled, only parental instability was directly related to slow life history, while other hypothesized environmental pathways were non-significant. This suggests that developmental models that emphasize environmental and contextual pathways should control for possible genetic confounds.

Biological sensitivity to context: A test of the hypothesized U-shaped relation between early adversity and stress responsivity

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 641-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nila Shakiba ◽  
Bruce J. Ellis ◽  
Nicole R. Bush ◽  
W. Thomas Boyce
Keyword(s):  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Kindergarten Children ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Cortisol Reactivity ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
Stress Responsivity ◽  
Disproportionate Number ◽  
Biological Sensitivity To Context

AbstractWe conducted signal detection analyses to test for curvilinear, U-shaped relations between early experiences of adversity and heightened physiological responses to challenge, as proposed by biological sensitivity to context theory. Based on analysis of an ethnically diverse sample of 338 kindergarten children (4–6 years old) and their families, we identified levels and types of adversity that, singly and interactively, predicted high (top 25%) and low (bottom 25%) rates of stress reactivity. The results offered support for the hypothesized U-shaped curve and conceptually replicated and extended the work of Ellis, Essex, and Boyce (2005). Across both sympathetic and adrenocortical systems, a disproportionate number of children growing up under conditions characterized by either low or high adversity (as indexed by restrictive parenting, family stress, and family economic condition) displayed heightened stress reactivity, compared with peers growing up under conditions of moderate adversity. Finally, as hypothesized by the adaptive calibration model, a disproportionate number of children who experienced exceptionally stressful family conditions displayed blunted cortisol reactivity to stress.

scholarly journals Adjustment Disorders as Stress Response Syndromes: A New Diagnostic Concept and Its Exploration in a Medical Sample

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Maercker ◽  
Franziska Einsle ◽  
Volker Köllner
Keyword(s):  
Stress Response ◽  
Adjustment Disorders ◽  
As Stress

scholarly journals Procoagulant reactivity to laboratory acute mental stress in Africans and Caucasians, and its relation to depressive symptoms: The SABPA Study

2013 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 977-986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hamer ◽  
Nico T. Malan ◽  
Kobus Scheepers ◽  
Muriel Meiring ◽  
Leonè Malan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Peripheral Resistance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Questionnaire ◽  
D Dimer

SummaryThe risk of cardiovascular disease is dramatically increasing in Africans (black). The prothrombotic stress response contributes to atherothrombotic disease and is modulated by depressive symptoms. We examined coagulation reactivity to acute mental stress and its relation to psychological well-being in Africans relative to Caucasians (white). A total of 102 African and 165 Caucasian school teachers underwent the Stroop Color-Word Conflict test. Circulating levels of von Willebrand factor (VWF) antigen, fibrinogen, and D-dimer were measured before and after the Stroop. Cardiovascular reactivity measures were also obtained. All participants completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and the General Health Questionnaire-28 for the assessment of depressive symptoms and total psychological distress, respectively. After controlling for covariates, resting levels of VWF, fibrinogen, and D-dimer were higher in Africans than in Caucasians (all p-values ≤0.006). Depressive symptoms and psychological distress were not significantly associated with resting coagulation measures. Stress reactivity in VWF (p<0.001) and fibrinogen (p=0.016), but not in D-dimer (p=0.27), were decreased in Africans relative to Caucasians with Africans showing greater reactivity of total peripheral resistance (p=0.017). Depressive symptoms, but not general psychological distress, were associated with greater VWF increase (p=0.029) and greater fibrinogen decrease (p=0.030) in Africans relative to Caucasians. In conclusion, Africans showed greater hypercoagulability at rest but diminished procoagulant reactivity to acute mental stress when compared with Caucasians. Ethnic differences in the vascular adrenergic stress response might partially explain this finding. Depressive symptoms were associated with exaggerated VWF reactivity in Africans relative to Caucasians. The clinical implications of these findings for Africans need further study.

The endocrine response to stress

2011 ◽  
pp. 287-294
Author(s):  
David E. Henley ◽  
Joey M. Kaye ◽  
Stafford L. Lightman
Keyword(s):  
Stress Response ◽  
Initial Exposure ◽  
Behavioural Responses ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Psychological Stressors ◽  
Endocrine Stress Response ◽  
The Face ◽  
Response To Stress ◽  
Trauma Injury ◽  
As Stress

In the face of any threat or challenge, either real or perceived, an organism must mount a series of coordinated and specific hormonal, autonomic, immune, and behavioural responses that allow it to either escape or adapt (1–3). To be successful, the characteristics and intensity of the response must match that posed by the threat itself and should last no longer than is necessary. A response that is either inadequate or excessive in terms of its specificity, intensity or duration may result in one or more of a multitude of psychological or physical pathologies (2–5). This concept of threat and the organism’s response to it is frequently recognized and understood as ‘stress’ but is so diverse that it lacks a universally accepted definition (2) and thus is difficult to investigate or study (6). In the early 1900s, Walter Cannon introduced the concept of homoeostasis (4)—an ideal steady state for all physiological processes. Stress has been defined as the state where this ideal is threatened. More easily appreciated, however, are those factors, both intrinsic and extrinsic, which represent a challenge to homoeostasis (termed stressors) and the complex physiological, hormonal, and behavioural responses that occur to restore the balance, the stress response (1). The importance of endocrine systems in this stress response was emphasized by Hans Selye (7), who described the need for multiple, integrated systems to respond in a coordinated fashion following exposure to a particular stressor. Nonspecific activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) and sympatho-adrenomedullary (SAM) axes occurred following initial exposure to a noxious stimulus. Continued exposure to the same agent has been shown to have lasting and damaging effects on various endocrine, immune, and other systems, although recovery from this state was possible provided the stress was terminated (7). In addition to various noxious agents, numerous potential stressors exist including exertion, physical extremes, trauma, injury, and psychological stress. Indeed, psychological stressors are some of the most potent stimuli of the endocrine stress response particularly when they involve elements of novelty, uncertainty, and unpredictability. This has been highlighted by the observation that anticipating an event can be as potent an activator of the stress response as the event itself (7).

scholarly journals The buffer effect of therapy dog exposure on stress reactivity in undergraduate students

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra J. Fiocco ◽  
Anastasia M. Hunse
Keyword(s):  
Stress Response ◽  
University Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Buffer Effect ◽  
Therapy Dog ◽  
Effect Of Therapy

Stress is an insidious health risk that is commonly reported among university students. While research suggests that dog exposure may facilitate recovery from a stress response, little is known about the buffer effect of dog exposure on the stress response to a future stressor. This study examined whether interaction with a therapy dog could reduce the strength of the physiological stress response when exposed to a subsequent stressor. Sixty-one university students were randomly assigned to either a therapy dog (TD, n = 31) or a no-dog control (C, n = 30) group. The stress response was measured by electrodermal activity (EDA) in response to the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). Participants also completed questionnaires that assessed pet attitude, general stress levels, and affect. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) showed that increase in EDA was significantly more pronounced in the C group than in the TD group (p < 0.01). Pet attitudes did not modulate the buffer effect of therapy dog exposure. Results suggest that therapy dog exposure may buffer the stress response in university students, which has implications for the promotion of a viable stress management program on university campuses. Keywords: stress; therapy dog; intervention; human-animal interaction

scholarly journals Maternal age and maternal environment affect stress reactivity and measures of social behaviour in laying hens

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana R. L. V. Peixoto ◽  
Leanne Cooley ◽  
Tina M. Widowski
Keyword(s):  
Stress Response ◽  
Maternal Effects ◽  
Social Stress ◽  
Maternal Age ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Laying Hens ◽  
Maternal Environment ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Commercial Breeder

Abstract Maternal effects can shape the phenotypes of offspring, but the extent to which a layer breeder’s experience can affect commercial laying hens remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the effects of maternal age and maternal environment on laying hens' behaviour and stress response. In our first experiment (E1), commercial hybrid hens were reared either in aviary or barren brooding cages, then housed in aviary, conventional cages or furnished (enriched) cages, thus forming different maternal housing treatments. Hens from each treatment were inseminated at three ages, and measures of response to manual restraint and social stress were assessed in offspring. In experiment 2 (E2), maternal age effects on offspring's stress response were further investigated using fertile eggs from commercial breeder flocks at three ages. In E1, maternal age affected struggling and corticosterone during manual restraint, feather pecking and pulling and comb wounds. Additionally, maternal rearing and housing in aviary systems showed positive effects on measures of behaviour and stress response in offspring. Effects of maternal age were not replicated in E2, possibly due to methodological differences or higher tolerance to maternal effects in commercial breeders. Overall, we recommend researchers start reporting parent stock's age to increase our understanding of the subject.

scholarly journals Future-Proofing Startups: Stress Management Principles Based on Adaptive Calibration Model and Active Inference Theory

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1155
Author(s):  
Stephen Fox
Keyword(s):  
Stress Management ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Internal State ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Calibration Model ◽  
Active Inference ◽  
Ecological Fitness ◽  
Adaptive Calibration ◽  
Stress Responsivity ◽  
Inference Theory

In this paper, the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM) and Active Inference Theory (AIT) are related to future-proofing startups. ACM encompasses the allocation of energy by the stress response system to alternative options for action, depending upon individuals’ life histories and changing external contexts. More broadly, within AIT, it is posited that humans survive by taking action to align their internal generative models with sensory inputs from external states. The first contribution of the paper is to address the need for future-proofing methods for startups by providing eight stress management principles based on ACM and AIT. Future-proofing methods are needed because, typically, nine out of ten startups do not survive. A second contribution is to relate ACM and AIT to startup life cycle stages. The third contribution is to provide practical examples that show the broader relevance ACM and AIT to organizational practice. These contributions go beyond previous literature concerned with entrepreneurial stress and organizational stress. In particular, rather than focusing on particular stressors, this paper is focused on the recalibrating/updating of startups’ stress responsivity patterns in relation to changes in the internal state of the startup and/or changes in the external state. Overall, the paper makes a contribution to relating physics of life constructs concerned with energy, action and ecological fitness to human organizations.

scholarly journals Effects of sugar and sweetener on the acute endocrine stress response in fasted women

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Meier ◽  
Ulrike U. Bentele ◽  
Annika Benz ◽  
Bernadette Denk ◽  
Stephanie J. Dimitroff ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Glucose ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Stress Reactivity ◽  
Blood Glucose Concentration ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
Sweet Taste ◽  
Glucose Levels ◽  
Blood Glucose Levels ◽  
Endocrine Stress Response ◽  
Metabolic Properties

The endocrine stress response helps to maintain homeostasis at times of increased demand and supports survival through energy mobilization. Paradoxically, low blood glucose levels impede the endocrine stress response, yet increasing blood glucose levels through sugar consumption prior to stress restores it. This suggests that glucose availability may play a causal role in the endocrine stress response. However, sugar has other distinct properties beyond the raise of blood glucose concentration. Here, we investigated the potential role of sweetness in restoring the cortisol stress reactivity after fasting. N=152 women (mean(age)=21.53, sd(age)=2.61) participated in a psychosocial stress test for groups in the morning after an overnight fast. Prior to stress induction, participants either consumed a drink that contained a caloric sweetener (sugar, n=51), an equally sweet drink containing non-caloric sweetener (sweetener, n=46), or water (n=56). Salivary cortisol and blood glucose levels were assessed repeatedly. Former studies suggested that sugar load prior to stress leads to increased cortisol responses compared to water, and sweetener. The effects of the consumed drinks on cortisol trajectories were tested using multilevel mixed models. Unexpectedly, we found that sugar and sweetener each significantly increased cortisol stress reactivity compared to water. Indeed, sweetener lead to cortisol increases comparable to sugar. Changes in blood glucose levels after drink consumption were not significantly associated with stress-induced increases in cortisol. This suggests that not the metabolic properties of sugar, but properties of sweet taste prior to stress are critical to boost the endocrine stress response to stress.

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