title: Social support reduces stress hormone levels in wild chimpanzees across stressful events and everyday affiliations.
abstract: Stress is a major cause of poor health and mortality in humans and other social mammals. Close social bonds buffer stress, however much of the underlying physiological mechanism remains unknown. Here, we test two key hypotheses: bond partner effects occur only during stress (social buffering) or generally throughout daily life (main effects). We assess urinary glucocorticoids (uGC) in wild chimpanzees, with or without their bond partners, after a natural stressor, resting or everyday affiliation. Chimpanzees in the presence of, or interacting with, bond partners rather than others have lowered uGC levels across all three contexts. These results support the main effects hypothesis and indicate that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis regulation is mediated by daily engagement with bond partners both within and out of stressful contexts. Regular social support with bond partners could lead to better health through daily 'micro-management' of the HPA axis, a finding with potential medical implications for humans.
authors: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primatology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|University of St Andrews, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK.|Budongo Conservation Field Station, PO Box 362, Masindi, Uganda.
authors: Roman M
authors: RM
authors: Wittig
authors: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primatology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.|University of St Andrews, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK.|Budongo Conservation Field Station, PO Box 362, Masindi, Uganda.
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Crockford
authors: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primatology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Anja
authors: A
authors: Weltring
authors: Arizona State University, School of Human Evolution &Social Change and Institute of Human Origins, Tempe, Arizona 85281, USA.
authors: Kevin E
authors: KE
authors: Langergraber
authors: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Primatology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors: Tobias
authors: T
authors: Deschner
authors: University of St Andrews, School of Psychology &Neuroscience, St Andrews, KY16 9JP, UK.|Budongo Conservation Field Station, PO Box 362, Masindi, Uganda.|University of Neuchatel, Department of Comparative Cognition, 2000 Neuchatel, Switzerland.
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Zuberbühler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000502:physiology*; D012944:Social Support; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids