title: Maternal rearing environment impacts autonomic nervous system activity.
abstract: While it is now well known that social deprivation during early development permanently perturbs affective responding, accumulating evidence suggests that less severe restriction of the early social environment may also have deleterious effects. In the present report, we evaluate the affective responding of rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) infants raised by their mothers in restricted social environments or by their mothers in large social groups by indexing autonomic nervous system activity. Following a 25-hr evaluation of biobehavioral organization, electrocardiogram, and an index of respiration were recorded for 10 min. This allowed for an evaluation of both heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), an index of parasympathetic activity, during a challenging situation. Three- to four-month-old infants raised in restricted social environments had significantly higher heart rates and lower RSA as compared to infants raised in unrestricted social environments, consistent with a more potent stress response to the procedure. These results are consistent with mounting evidence that the environment in which individuals are raised has important consequences for affective processing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, California.|California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California.|Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, California.
authors.forename: Eliza
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0740-5612
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bliss-Moreau
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Health and Reproduction, University of California, Davis, California.|California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California.|Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis, California.
authors.forename: Gilda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moadab
authors.affiliation: California National Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California.|Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, California.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Capitanio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D009035:Mothers; D065809:Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment
keywords: Macaca mulatta; autonomic nervous system; heart rate; respiratory sinus arrhythmia; rhesus macaque; social environment