Abstract
Retrospective correlational studies of humans suggest that moderate but not minimal or substantial early life stress exposure promotes the development of stress inoculation-induced resilience. Here we test for a nonlinear relationship between early life stress and resilience by comparing varying “doses” of early life stress. Juvenile squirrel monkeys underwent one of five treatment conditions between 17–27 weeks of age: Stress inoculation (SI) with continuous access to mother (SI + Mom; one stress element), SI without continuous access to mother (SI; two stress elements), SI without continuous access to mother and with alprazolam injection pretreatments (SI + Alz; three stress elements), SI without continuous access to mother and with vehicle injection pretreatments (SI + Veh; three stress elements), or standard housing (No SI; zero stress elements). Alprazolam was used to test whether anxiolytic medication diminished SI effects. Subjects exposed to one or two early life stressors subsequently responded with fewer indications of anxiety (e.g., decreased maternal clinging, increased object exploration, smaller cortisol increases) compared to No SI subjects. Subjects exposed to three early life stressors did not differ on most measures from one another or from No SI subjects. These findings provide empirical support for a nonlinear J-shaped relationship between early life stress exposure and subsequent resilience.
Highlights
Retrospective correlational studies of humans suggest that moderate but not minimal or substantial early life stress exposure promotes the development of stress inoculation-induced resilience
These findings suggest that anxiolytic pretreatment prior to moderate early life stress exposure may disrupt the development of resilience
Findings from this study indicate that monkeys exposed to one or two stressors in the Stress inoculation (SI) + Mom and SI treatment conditions demonstrate diminished maternal clinging, enhanced object exploration, and smaller increases in cortisol during novel environment test sessions compared to monkeys from treatment conditions with fewer (No SI) or greater (SI + Alz and SI + Veh) numbers of early life stressors
Summary
Retrospective correlational studies of humans suggest that moderate but not minimal or substantial early life stress exposure promotes the development of stress inoculation-induced resilience. Moderate amounts of lifetime adversity have been associated with lower global distress, fewer trauma symptoms, and higher life satisfaction in adults[8,9] These findings suggest that exposure to moderate but not minimal or substantial early life stress has an inoculation-like effect that enhances subsequent emotion regulation and resilience as has been depicted by a non-linear J-shaped function[10,11]. Anxiolytic medications interfere with learned extinction of conditioned fear[19], whereas the anxiogenic compound yohimbine activates the HPA axis and accelerates learned extinction of conditioned fear[20] These findings suggest that anxiolytic pretreatment prior to moderate early life stress exposure may disrupt the development of resilience. 37 weeks of age Treatment condition No SI SI + Mom SI SI + Veh SI + Alz
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