Citation

Mandalaywala TM, Petrullo LA, Parker KJ, Maestripieri D, Higham JP. Dev. Psychobiol. 2017; 59(8): 1031-1038.

Affiliation

Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, New York.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/dev.21572

PMID

29071705

Abstract

Early life adversity (ELA) can lead to poor health later in life. However, there is significant variation in outcomes, with some individuals displaying resilience even in the face of adversity. Using longitudinal data collected from free-ranging rhesus macaques between birth and 3 years, we examined whether individual variation in vigilance for threat, an early emerging attentional bias, can account for variation in long-term outcomes between individuals reared in similar environments. We found that ELA and vigilance during infancy interact to predict physiological dysregulation in Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) stress responses during juvenility. During high stress periods, High ELA juveniles with high vigilance exhibit less asymmetry than High ELA juveniles with low vigilance. This suggests that although increased vigilance is viewed as a negative consequence of ELA, it might also be a mechanism by which vulnerable individuals proactively buffer themselves from negative outcomes in unstable or threatening environments.

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

asymmetry; cognitive bias; cortisol; early life adversity; rhesus macaque; salivary α-amylase