Early Experience and Adult Responses to Stress

描述（由申请人提供）：长期暴露于压力已涉及各种身体（例如，心血管、胃肠、呼吸）和心理（例如，焦虑、抑郁）状况，导致大量的人员、医疗和经济损失。然而，压力并不是一个单一的现象，尽管大多数物种都有一些共同的生物和行为反应模式，但每个生物体都以独特的方式对压力做出反应，反映了其特定的经历，生活史和遗传密码。因此，许多基础和应用科学都集中在了解调节对压力的反应的内部和外部力量，这反过来又有助于我们了解各种压力引起的身体和精神障碍的病因。 早期环境事件在塑造生物体的生物学和行为方面的影响已经使用各种范式和物种进行了探索，包括啮齿动物的产前和产后操作（主要是由于其相对较短的产前和产后时间框架）。使用产前压力，产后处理，母亲分离和交叉培养的研究都说明了生物体发育的生物行为敏感性。这些研究对环境经验对生物体发育轨迹的潜在影响几乎没有任何疑问。然而，这些方法可能只是故事的一部分。一个有机体的基因型通常是在与外部环境动态相互作用的背景下表达的，本质上是允许环境编程来塑造潜在遗传倾向的表达。 因此，目前的建议，旨在扩大这些发现，通过使用母亲分离和交叉培养的模型，提高反应，以确定早期经验对行为，心血管和神经反应系统的影响。该项目的完成将需要行为观察，心血管分析，药理学评估和中枢神经研究，以指导对实验问题的多层次分析。这些数据有可能提供有关正常生物行为过程调节的信息，并提示可能涉及某些身心障碍的病因机制。与区域计划的使命一致，该项目将为本科生提供重要的培训和教育机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Chronic exposure to stress has been implicated in a variety of physical (e.g., cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory) and psychological (e.g., anxiety, depression) conditions, resulting in substantial human, medical and financial toll. Stress is not a unitary phenomenon, however, and although there are some common biological and behavioral response patterns in most species, each organism responds to stress in a unique manner that reflects its particular experience, life history and genetic code. Thus, much basic and applied science has focused on understanding the internal and external forces that modulate the response to stress, which in turn helps inform us about the etiology of a variety of stress-induced physical and mental disorders. The influence of early environmental events in shaping an organism's biology and behavior has been explored using a variety of paradigms and species, including pre- and post-natal manipulations in rodents (largely due to their relatively short pre- and post-natal timeframes). Studies using prenatal stressors, postnatal handling, maternal separation and cross-fostering all illustrate the biobehavioral sensitivity of the developing organism. These studies leave little doubt about the potent effect that environmental experience can exert on an organism's developmental trajectory. However, these approaches may tell only part of the story. An organism's genotype is often expressed in the context of a dynamic interplay with external circumstances, in essence allowing environmental programming to shape the expression underlying genetic tendencies. The current proposal therefore seeks to extend these findings by using maternal separation and cross-fostering in a model of heightened reactivity to determine the effects of early experience on behavioral, cardiovascular, and neural response systems. Completion of the project will require behavioral observations, cardiovascular profiling, pharmacologic assessment, and central neural studies in order to direct multiple levels of analyses on the experimental questions. These data have the potential to provide information regarding the regulation of normal biobehavioral processes as well as suggesting etiologic mechanisms which may be involved in certain physical and mental disorders. Consistent with the mission of the AREA program, this project will provide a significant training and educational opportunity for undergraduate students.