The Darwinian concept of stress: benefits of allostasis and costs of allostatic load and the trade-offs in health and disease
Section snippets
General introduction
Due to the pioneering work of Hans Selye [1], the use of the word ‘Stress’ has become popular all over the world. However, despite the vast amount of scientific research generated in this field the term stress has been a stumbling block right from its first use. The term has so many different meanings [2] that it becomes counterproductive by inhibiting a proper application and critical interpretation of experimental results. Stress has mostly been associated with negative events and
Theoretical considerations: evolutionary stable strategies
Why do organisms adopt different behavioral strategies for coping with stress? The question arises why variation is maintained in a population or why a population does not simply drift towards a homogeneous group of the most successful phenotypes. There is some theoretical support for the maintenance of individual variation within a population. For instance, Maynard Smith [16] applied ‘Game Theory’ to animal behavior and found that natural selection tends to maintain a balance between different
Neuroendocrine differences between Hawks and Doves
In order to adapt to a changing environment Hawks and Doves not only differ in the type of behavioral responses shown, i.e. fight–flight versus freeze–hide, but also in their underlying physiology, neuroendocrinology (Table 2) and neurobiology (Table 3). We provide proximate (causal) explanations for the requirement for different stress responses and for how they exert their actions. First though, we list the differences in the physiological responses of Hawks and Doves (3.1 Neuroendocrine
Allostatic state, allostatic load and the emotional brain
Mediators of allostasis (e.g. adrenal hormones, neurotransmitters, and immuno-cytokines) act on receptors in various tissues and organs to produce effects that are adaptive in the short term but that can produce an allostatic state which may be damaging if the mediators are not shut off. Allostatic state refers to a state of chronic deviation of the regulatory system from its normal mean operating level [9]. As a result, the effects of the different mediators on target cells are prolonged and
Conclusions
With the exception of the past few thousand years, a drop in the bucket of evolutionary time, humans and animals have evolved in natural habitats and are therefore intricately tied to nature. It has become clear that natural selection maintains a balance of different traits, e.g. preserving genes for high aggression (Hawks) and low aggression (Doves) within a population. The existence of the Hawk–Dove strategy is widespread in the animal kingdom, not only between males and females, but also
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Bryan Jones for helpful criticism of the manuscript.
References (466)
Effects of adverse experiences for brain structure and function
Biol Psychiatry
(2000)- et al.
The concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine
Horm Behav
(2003) - et al.
Drug addiction, dysregulation of reward, and allostasis
Neuropsychopharmacology
(2001) Proximate and evolutionary studies of anxiety, stress and depression: synergy at the interface Neurosci Biobehav Rev
(1999)- et al.
Armaments and ornaments: an evolutionary explanation of traits of dual utility
Biol J Linnean Soc
(1996) - et al.
Fecal corticosteroids in a territorial bird selected for different personalities: daily rhythm and the response to social stress
Horm Behav
(2003) - et al.
Consistent individual differences in early exploratory behaviour of male great tits
Anim Behav
(1994) - et al.
Evolution of correlated characters
Trends Ecol Evol
(1992) - et al.
Individual differences in the use of social information in foraging by captive great tits
Anim Behav
(2000) - et al.
Plasma cathecolamine and corticosterone levels during manual restraint in chicks from a high and low feather pecking line of laying hens
Physiol Behav
(1997)
Coping styles in animals: current status in behavior and stress-physiology
Neurosci Biobehav Rev
Individual behavioural characteristics in pigs
Appl Anim Behav Sci
Behavioral stress response of genetically selected aggressive and nonaggressive wild house mice in the shock-probe/defensive burying test
Pharmacol Biochem Behav
Antisense to the glucocorticoid receptor in hippocampal dentate gyrus reduces immobility in forced swim test
Eur J Pharmacol
Neuroendocrine states and behavioral and physiological stress responses
Prog Brain Res
Conditioned neuroendocrine and cardiovascular stress responsiveness accompanying behavioral passivity and activity in aged and in young rats
Physiol Behav
Anxiolytic-like effects of selective mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid antagonists on fear-enhanced behavior in the elevated plus-maze
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Behavioral and cardiac responses to mild stress in young and aged rats: effects of amphetamine and vasopressin
Physiol Behav
Shyness and boldness in pumpkinseed sunfish: individual differences are context-specific
Anim Behav
Individual behavioral and physiological strategies in pigs
Physiol Behav
Adrenocortical reactivity and central serotonin and dopamine turnover in young chicks from a high and low feather-pecking line of laying hens
Physiol Behav
Differences in basal and stress-induced HPA regulation of wild house mice selected for high and low aggression
Horm Behav
Enhanced 5-HT1A receptor expression in forebrain regions of aggressive house mice
Brain Res
Brain aromatase activity and plasma testosterone levels are elevated in aggressive male mice during early ontogeny
Brain Res Dev Brain Res
Enhanced sensitivity of postsynaptic serotonin-1A receptors in rats and mice with high trait aggression
Physiol Behav
Cerebrospinal fluid monoamine and metabolite concentrations and aggression in rats
Horm Behav
Search after neurobiological profile of individual-specific features of Wistar rats
Brain Res Bull
Behavioural differences between artificially selected aggressive and non-aggressive mice: response to apomorphine
Behav Brain Res
Hippocampal mossy fiber distributions in mice selected for aggression
Brain Res
The ups and downs of glucocorticoid physiology. Permissive and suppressive effects revisited
Mol Cell Endocrinol
Paradoxical effects of adrenal steroids on the brain: protection versus degeneration
Biol Psychiatry
The acute effects of corticosteroids on cognition: integration of animal and human model studies
Brain Res Rev
Opposing role of adrenal steroid type I and type II receptors in hippocampal long-term potentiation
Neuroscience
Effects of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors on long-term potentiation in the CA3 hippocampal field
Brain Res
Stress and cognition: are corticosteroids good or bad guys?
Trends Neurosci
Cognitive dysfunction resulting from hippocampal hyperactivity—a possible cause of anxiety disorder?
Pharmacol Biochem Behav
Regulation of hippocampal theta activity by corticosterone: opposing functions of mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid receptors
Brain Res Bull
Support for a bimodal role for type II adrenal steroid receptors in spatial memory
Neurobiol Learn Mem
Type II glucocorticoid receptor antagonists impair contextual but not auditory-cue fear conditioning in juvenile rats
Neurobiol Learn Mem
Stress and cognition: are corticosteroids good or bad guys?
Trends Neurosci
What is stress?
Metabolism
The end of stress ass we know it
Hat die Nebenniere tatsächlich eine Verteidigungsfunktion?
Das Hormon (Organon Holland)
Protective and damaging effects of stress
N Engl J Med
Stress and the individual: mechanisms leading to disease
Arch Int Med
Allostasis: a new paradigm to explain arousal pathology
On the origin of the species by means of natural selection, or, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life
Is depression an adaptation?
Arch Gen Psychiatry
On the difficulty of defining disease: a Darwinian perspective
Med Health Care Philos
On aims and methods of ethology
Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie
Cited by (801)
Individuals being high in their sensitivity to the environment: Are sensitive period changes in play?
2024, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral ReviewsCortisol's diurnal rhythm indexes the neurobiological impact of child adversity in adolescence
2024, Biological PsychologyHypothalamic CRF neurons facilitate brain reward function
2024, Current BiologyInflammation and Behavior Changes in Dogs and Cats
2024, Veterinary Clinics of North America - Small Animal Practice