Physiology and Behavior of Maturation in Wild Baboons

描述（由申请人提供）：社会交往和环境是 越来越多的人认识到， 功能、健康和幸福。虽然没有数据， 男性生殖成熟，社会因素影响月经初潮时间， 姑娘们视情况而定，青春期提前可能是一种资产， 损害个人的社会和身体发展或其 终生生存和繁殖。拟议的试点研究将提供一个 首次对潜在的生理机制进行了研究 在青春期的时间和长度的个体间变异性 在非人类灵长类动物的野生种群中， 社会对这些机制的影响。我们将调查在多大程度上 行为和社会因素的子集与成熟度相关 测量和可检测的生理之间的时间关系 和行为差异。我们的目标是确定 青少年之间的优势地位和攻击/顺从的相互作用， 青少年与成年人的社会互动预测了 男性和女性的青春期、成熟期和成年等级达到。我们 假设这种关系是通过下丘脑介导的- 垂体-性腺（HPG）和HP-肾上腺（HPA）轴。社会环境将是 以支配地位和特定行为的可变性为特征 决定等级的因素，如空间位移、攻击性， 成绩.我们会测量粪便中雌激素的浓度， 睾酮和糖皮质激素，并将这些与表现出的行为相关联 在从幼年到青春期和青春期到 成年期的男性和女性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Social interactions and environment are increasingly recognized as potentially important influences on reproductive function, health, and well-being. Although data are not available for reproductive maturation in boys, social factors influence time of menarche in girls. Depending on circumstances, early puberty may be either an asset or detriment to the social and physical development of the individual or to its lifetime survival and reproduction. The proposed pilot research will provide a first investigation into the physiological mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in the timing of puberty and the length of adolescence in a wild population of non-human primates and into some of the social impacts on these mechanisms. We shall investigate the extent to which a sub-set of behavioral and social factors is correlated with maturational measures and what the temporal relationship is between detectable physiological and behavioral differences. Our aim is to determine the extent to which dominance status and aggressive/submissive interactions among juveniles and the juveniles' social interactions with adults predict physiological patterns of puberty, maturation, and adult rank attainment in males and females. We hypothesize that this relationship is mediated via the hypothalamic- pituitary-gonadal (HPG) and HP-adrenal (HPA) axes. Social environment will be characterized by dominance rank and by variability in the specific behaviors that determine rank, such as, spatial displacements, aggression, and submission. We will measure fecal hormone concentrations of estrogens, testosterone, and glucocorticoids and correlate these with behaviors exhibited during the transition between juvenescence to adolescence and adolescence to adulthood in males and females.