Journal
DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
Volume 23, Issue 4, Pages 1001-1016Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579411000460
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Funding
- NICHD NIH HHS [HD055255, R21 HD055255] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [P50 MH078105, F31 MH086203, MH078105, P50 MH078105-01A2S1, MH086203] Funding Source: Medline
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The mechanisms through which early life stress leads to psychopathology are thought to involve allostatic load, the wear and tear an organism is subjected to as a consequence of sustained elevated levels of glucocorticoids caused by repeated/prolonged stress activations. The allostatic load model described this phenomenon, but has been criticized as inadequate to explain alterations associated with early adverse experience in some systems, including behavior, which cannot be entirely explained from an energy balance perspective. The reactive scope model has been more recently proposed and focuses less on energy balance and more on dynamic ranges of physiological and behavioral mediators. In this review we examine the mechanisms underlying the behavioral consequences of early life stress in the context of both these models. We focus on adverse experiences that involve mother-infant relationship disruption, and dissect those mechanisms involving maternal care as a regulator of development of neural circuits that control emotional and social behaviors in the offspring. We also discuss the evolutionary purpose of the plasticity in behavioral development, which has a clear adaptive value in a changing environment.
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