USING REACTIVE SCOPE TO UNDERSTAND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES DURING STRESS

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event USING REACTIVE SCOPE TO UNDERSTAND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES DURING STRESS L Michael Romero1* 1 Tufts University, Biology, United States Even though the term “stress” is widely used, a precise definition is notoriously difficult. Notwithstanding this difficulty, stress continues to be an important concept in biology because it attempts to describe how animals cope with environmental change under emergency conditions. Without a precise definition, however, it becomes nearly impossible to make testable a priori predictions about how physiological and hormonal systems will respond to emergency conditions and what the ultimate impact on the animal will be. We recently proposed the Reactive Scope Model as an attempt to formulate testable predictions. Reactive Scope presumes that hormones and other physiological mediators exist in four distinct ranges. The predictive homeostasis range encompasses concentrations during normal daily and yearly activities and the reactive homeostasis range encompasses concentrations during acute emergency conditions. Together, these two ranges comprise the normal reactive scope of the animal. Concentrations below the reactive scope (homeostatic failure) are insufficient to sustain life and concentrations above the reactive scope (homeostatic overload) begin to create pathological problems typified by chronic stress. Using this model, it is possible to formulate predictions of both acute and chronic hormonal responses to stress. Keywords: Allostasis, Catecholamines, Glucocorticoids, reactive scope, stress Conference: NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, Ann Arbor, United States, 13 Jul - 16 Jul, 2011. Presentation Type: Invited Symposium Topic: Stress hormones Citation: Romero L (2011). USING REACTIVE SCOPE TO UNDERSTAND PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES DURING STRESS. Front. Endocrinol. Conference Abstract: NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology. doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.04.00071 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Jul 2011; Published Online: 09 Aug 2011. * Correspondence: Prof. L Michael Romero, Tufts University, Biology, Medford, MA, 02155, United States, michael.romero@tufts.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers L Michael Romero Google L Michael Romero Google Scholar L Michael Romero PubMed L Michael Romero Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.