Does the early social environment prepare individuals for the future? A match-mismatch experiment in female wild cavies

Sangenstedt, Susanne; Szardenings, Carsten; Sachser, Norbert; Kaiser, Sylvia

doi:10.1186/s12983-018-0261-1

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(79 reference statements)

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“…For this to be an advantageous strategy, one might expect that stress programming should optimize fitness under ancestral stress conditions. To our knowledge, this has not yet been investigated, but several studies have demonstrated that early stress actually may optimize survival skills, energy expenditure and reproductive strategies in the exposed generation (Cameron et al, 2008;Champagne et al, 2008;Sangenstedt, Szardenings, Sachser, & Kaiser, 2018). Rats that received poor maternal care as infants reach puberty earlier and engage in higher rates of sexual behavior as adults, perhaps ensuring reproductive success in uncertain conditions (Cameron et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal line effects of early experiences persist across three generations in rhesus macaques

Kinnally

Gonzalez

Capitanio

2018

Developmental Psychobiology

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The effects of early stress may not be limited to the exposed generation, but are sometimes passed on to subsequent generations. Such non-genetic transgenerational inheritance is a potentially important developmental and evolutionary force. We compared the transgenerational effects of maternal and paternal line early stress on anxiety- and health-related traits in three non-exposed generations (F1, F2 and F3) of semi-naturalistically raised rhesus macaques. As infants, F0 macaques were exposed to nursery rearing (NR) or semi-naturalistic social conditions (CONTROL). Three hundred forty non-exposed F1-F3 descendants were CONTROL reared and physiological and behavioral measures were collected during standardized assessment at 3-4 months of age. Paternal line NR was significantly associated with greater nervousness in F1-F3 and lower immune cell counts in F1-F2. Maternal-line NR effects were not observed. This study suggests that acquired stress-related traits may be "inherited" across generations in primates, through complex social or germ-line mechanisms.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paternal line effects of early experiences persist across three generations in rhesus macaques

Kinnally

Gonzalez

Capitanio

2018

Developmental Psychobiology

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“…This study aims to investigate whether dominance rank, baseline cortisol level, and cortisol responsiveness (here defined as the absolute cortisol concentration after 1 and 2 h of exposure to a stressor) [ 29 , 33 , 34 ] are repeatable and whether dominance rank correlates to cortisol concentrations in female guinea pigs ( Cavia aperea f. porcellus ). Guinea pigs are social mammals, and females form linear dominance hierarchies [ 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeatability of endocrine traits and dominance rank in female guinea pigs

et al. 2022

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Background Glucocorticoids (e.g. cortisol) are associated with variation in social behavior, and previous studies have linked baseline as well as challenge-induced glucocorticoid concentrations to dominance status. It is known that cortisol response to an acute challenge is repeatable and correlates to social behavior in males of many mammal species. However, it is unclear whether these patterns are also consistent for females. The aim of this study was to investigate whether baseline and response cortisol concentrations are repeatable in female guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) and whether dominance rank is stable and correlated to baseline cortisol concentration and/or cortisol responsiveness. Results Our results show that cortisol responsiveness (after 1 h: R = 0.635, 95% CI = 0.229, 0.927; after 2 h: R = 0.764, 95% CI = 0.433, 0.951) and dominance rank (R = 0.709, 95% CI = 0.316, 0.935) of females were significantly repeatable after six weeks but not correlated. Baseline cortisol was not repeatable (R = 0, 95% CI = 0, 0.690) and also did not correlate to dominance rank. Furthermore, the difference in repeatability estimates of baseline and response values was due to high within-individual variance of baseline cortisol concentration; the amount of between-individual variance was similar for baseline cortisol and the two measures of cortisol responsiveness. Conclusions Females occupying different dominance ranks did not have long-term differences in cortisol concentrations, and cortisol responsiveness does not seem to be significantly involved in the maintenance of dominance rank. Overall, this study reveals the remarkable stability of cortisol responsiveness and dominance rank in a female rodent, and it remains an open question whether the magnitude of cortisol responsiveness is adaptive in social contexts for females.

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“…Videos were recorded in the afternoons For analysis, several behaviors were combined into summary categories. These categories were based on previous work with guinea pigs and cavies (Sachser & Kaiser, 1996;Sangenstedt et al, 2018).…”

Section: Social Behavior In Home Enclosurementioning

confidence: 99%

Shaped by you: The effect of social partner on cortisol and behavior during adolescence in a female rodent

Rystrom,

Wesseler,

Richter

et al. 2023

Ethology

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Adolescence is a sensitive phase when cues from the social environment can shape consistent individual differences in behavioral and hormonal profiles, but the effect of the social partner on these phenotypes is not well‐understood, especially for females. We therefore aimed to investigate whether the age class and sex of the housing partner affect social behavior and cortisol concentrations in female guinea pigs during adolescence and estimate the repeatability of cortisol concentrations in this life stage. Female guinea pigs were housed upon weaning for 4 weeks with either an adult female, adolescent female, or adolescent male. Social behavior was observed in the home enclosure and a preference test and social interaction test were carried out at the end of the experiment. Cortisol concentrations (baseline and response to a challenge) were measured prior to the start of the experiment and 2 and 4 weeks after pair formation. We hypothesized that the social partner would affect behavior and cortisol concentrations. We found that females housed with an adult female were less aggressive and more consistently displaced by their housing partner than females housed with an adolescent female. Sex of the housing partner did not affect focal female behavior. Regarding hormones, baseline cortisol concentration was neither significantly repeatable nor significantly affected by the housing partner. However, cortisol responsiveness was highly repeatable both 1 h and 2 h after the onset of a challenge. The age class of the housing partner affected cortisol responsiveness, with higher cortisol concentrations measured at 1 h in females housed with an adult female. These results indicate that adolescent female guinea pigs exhibit consistent individual differences in cortisol responsiveness while retaining plasticity to adjust to cues from the social environment. Taken together, we show in a female rodent that the social environment can significantly shape behavioral and endocrine parameters during adolescence.

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Does the early social environment prepare individuals for the future? A match-mismatch experiment in female wild cavies

Cited by 8 publications

References 75 publications

Paternal line effects of early experiences persist across three generations in rhesus macaques

Paternal line effects of early experiences persist across three generations in rhesus macaques

Repeatability of endocrine traits and dominance rank in female guinea pigs

Shaped by you: The effect of social partner on cortisol and behavior during adolescence in a female rodent

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