Mismatch or cumulative stress: Toward an integrated hypothesis of programming effects

Nederhof, Esther; Schmidt, Mathias V.

doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.12.008

Cited by 309 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 151 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

216

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…But at the same time, the behavioural flexibility it induces in challenging situations reflects another programming effect that in contrast, is positive. This corroborates the mismatch hypothesis proposing that early adversity can elicit adaptive responses allowing an individual to better cope with further adversity later in life 11,43 . But it also decisively extends this hypothesis by introducing a heritable component to the model.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…In human, mild-to-moderate stressors experienced in childhood can have a 'stress inoculating' effect, and favour adaptive responses and resilience upon exposure to other stressors later in life 9,10 . Likewise in animals, chronic exposure to adverse conditions in postnatal life can in some conditions lower stress reactivity and improve cognitive abilities like spatial and reversal learning in adulthood 11,12 . Whether such beneficial effects can also be observed in the offspring has however not been investigated.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Early life stress in fathers improves behavioural flexibility in their offspring

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Traumatic experiences in childhood can alter behavioural responses and increase the risk for psychopathologies across life, not only in the exposed individuals but also in their progeny. In some conditions, such experiences can however be beneficial and facilitate the appraisal of adverse environments later in life. Here we expose newborn mice to unpredictable maternal separation combined with unpredictable maternal stress (MSUS) for 2 weeks and assess the impact on behaviour in the offspring when adult. We show that MSUS in male mice favours goal-directed behaviours and behavioural flexibility in the adult offspring. This effect is accompanied by epigenetic changes involving histone post-translational modifications at the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) gene and decreased MR expression in the hippocampus. Mimicking these changes pharmacologically in vivo reproduces the behavioural phenotype. These findings highlight the beneficial impact that early adverse experiences can have in adulthood, and the implication of epigenetic modes of gene regulation.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Early life stress in fathers improves behavioural flexibility in their offspring

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is consistent with the recent ''match-mismatch'' hypothesis advanced by Schmidt and others, which suggest that early life programming effects are not necessarily deleterious. Thus, the costs and benefits of a programmed trait need to be interpreted in the context of the individual and the current environment (Nederhof & Schmidt, 2012). There is some evidence that prenatal stress alters maternal care, which might influence and further contribute to the alterations in the offspring (Francis et al, 1999;Kuo et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal glucocorticoid exposure in rats: programming effects on stress reactivity and cognition in adult offspring

Zeng¹,

Brydges²,

Wood³

et al. 2015

Stress

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human epidemiological studies have provided compelling evidence that prenatal exposure to stress is associated with significantly increased risks of developing psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Exposure to excessive maternal glucocorticoids may underlie this fetal programming effect. In the current study, we assessed how prenatal dexamethasone administration during the last week of gestation affects stress reactivity and cognition in adult offspring. Stress reactivity was assessed by evaluating anxiety-like behavior on an elevated plus maze and in an open field. In addition, to characterize the long-term cognitive outcomes of prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids, animals were assessed on two cognitive tasks, a spatial reference memory task with reversal learning and a delayed matching to position (DMTP) task. Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to dexamethasone had no observable effect on anxiety-like behavior, but affected cognition in the adult offspring. Prenatally dexamethasone-exposed animals showed a transient deficit in the spatial reference memory task and a trend to faster acquisition during the reversal-learning phase. Furthermore, prenatally dexamethasone-treated animals also showed faster learning of new platform positions in the DMTP task. These results suggest that fetal overexposure to glucocorticoids programs a phenotype characterized by cognitive flexibility and adaptability to frequent changes in environmental circumstances. This can be viewed as an attempt to increase the fitness of survival in a potentially hazardous postnatal environment, as predicted by intrauterine adversity. Collectively, our data suggest that prenatal exposure to dexamethasone in rats could be used as an animal model for studying some cognitive components of related psychiatric disorders.

show abstract

“…The negative effects of antenatal stress may come from a mismatch between the early life and adulthood environments [46] given that the organism suffered modifications that are no longer relevant and may be maladaptive to the actual living conditions of the mature individual.…”

Section: The Hpa Axismentioning

confidence: 99%

Prenatal Stress and its effects of human cognition, behavior and psychopathology: A review of the literature

Ramborger¹,

Zubilete²,

Acosta³

2018

Pediatr Dimensions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Stress plays a fundamental role in the etiology and evolution of diseases and disorders both in the early stages of development and the adult life. Neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, autism, ADHD and schizophrenia have a complex etiology, which is influenced by early experiences that affect the vulnerability of the individual.During early intrauterine and postnatal life, the developing organism undergoes complex physiological changes, and even small disturbances can have far-reaching consequences which can be observed even into adulthood. Currently, understanding the factors that may be affecting the organism during development is a challenge. Among the effects induced by Prenatal Stress we can mention a dysregulation of the HPA axis, an alteration of the circadian rhythm, a reduction of the hippocampal plasticity and the capacity of learning and memory among others.The effects of Prenatal Stress are widely studied in laboratory animals, but systematic research on human subjects is comparatively scarce. While studies in humans suffer from certain methodological limitations, they are currently the only way to explore some of the most complex, long-term interactions between antenatal stress and the behavioral and cognitive alterations of the offspring. This work aims to review studies about Prenatal Stress pertaining human subjects, and to explore some of the controversies arising on this field.

show abstract

Mismatch or cumulative stress: Toward an integrated hypothesis of programming effects

Cited by 309 publications

References 151 publications

Early life stress in fathers improves behavioural flexibility in their offspring

Early life stress in fathers improves behavioural flexibility in their offspring

Prenatal glucocorticoid exposure in rats: programming effects on stress reactivity and cognition in adult offspring

Prenatal Stress and its effects of human cognition, behavior and psychopathology: A review of the literature

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About