Extinction Processes Research Articles

Palynological dynamics in the late Permian and the Permian–Triassic transition in southwestern China

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction (PTME) is regarded as the largest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic. However, the influence of the terrestrial ecological disturbance on plants remains controversial. Here we study the late Permian to the Early Triassic palynological successions from three borehole sections drilled through the entire Lopingian (the late Permian) and the Permian–Triassic transitional strata in southwestern China. Analyses of palynomorph composition and relative abundance allow us to identify four distinct palynofloral assemblages, which include, in ascending order, the Tripartites cristatus var. minor - Torispora laevigata (ML) assemblage, the Crassispora orientalis - Anticapipollis tornatilis (OT) assemblage, the Lundbladispora communis - Aratrisporites yunnanensis (CY) assemblage, and the Pteruchipollenites reticorpus - Protopinus fuyuanensis (RF) assemblage. These palynological assemblages, together with recently updated age data, further improve our understanding of vegetation dynamics around the PTME. The ML and OT assemblages from the Xuanwei Formation are dominated by gigantopteris and fern peat-forming rainforest and reflect warm and humid paleoclimate conditions preceding the PTME. At the bottom of the overlying Kayitou Formation, the abrupt replacement of the diverse sporomorph assemblage by the assemblage containing herbaceous communities reveals a dramatic floral disruption. The CY assemblage from the bottom part of the Kayitou Formation marks the destruction of Gigantopteris peat-forming ecosystems, and only a few species of Gigantopteris were retained in this assemblage. Subsequently, in the Kayitou Formation notable quantities of gymnosperm pollen dominate the RF assemblage. Many gymnosperms from the RF assemblage were present in the older assemblages in low abundances but they persisted through the ecological disturbance interval and rebounded in the early Triassic RF assemblage. The drought-tolerant plants growing in uplands were likely the first batch of plants to adapt and recover after the extinction event. In the upper part of the Kayitou Formation and the overlying Dongchuan Formation, spore and pollen fossils are absent, which may suggest the collapse of the local terrestrial ecosystem and may also indicate unsuitable conditions for microfossil preservation. We conclude that the PTME caused a sharp decrease in plant species and changes in vegetation-community compositions, but it did not immediately eradicate the terrestrial ecosystem in southwestern China. More drought-tolerant plants persisted beyond the first stage of the terrestrial crisis, but with gradual environmental degradation, terrestrial vegetation eventually collapsed in the Early Triassic. This observation supports the hypothesis that the extinction process of terrestrial vegetation was a two-staged and longer-duration event in southwestern China.

Neuropharmacological Modulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate, Noradrenaline and Endocannabinoid Receptors in Fear Extinction Learning: Synaptic Transmission and Plasticity

Learning to recognize and respond to potential threats is crucial for survival. Pavlovian threat conditioning represents a key paradigm for investigating the neurobiological mechanisms of fear learning. In this review, we address the role of specific neuropharmacological adjuvants that act on neurochemical synaptic transmission, as well as on brain plasticity processes implicated in fear memory. We focus on novel neuropharmacological manipulations targeting glutamatergic, noradrenergic, and endocannabinoid systems, and address how the modulation of these neurobiological systems affects fear extinction learning in humans. We show that the administration of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) agonists and modulation of the endocannabinoid system by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) inhibition can boost extinction learning through the stabilization and regulation of the receptor concentration. On the other hand, elevated noradrenaline levels dynamically modulate fear learning, hindering long-term extinction processes. These pharmacological interventions could provide novel targeted treatments and prevention strategies for fear-based and anxiety-related disorders.

Corticosterone injection into the infralimbic prefrontal cortex enhances fear memory extinction: Involvement of GABA receptors and the extracellular signal-regulated kinase

This study investigated the interactive effect of glucocorticoid and Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors in the Infralimbic (IL) cortex on fear extinction in rats' auditory fear conditioning task (AFC).Animals received 3 conditioning trial tones (conditioned stimulus, 30 s, 4 kHz, 80 dB) co-terminated with a footshock (unconditioned stimulus, 0.8 mA, 1 s). Extinction testing was conducted over 3 days (Ext 1–3) after conditioning. Intra-IL injection of corticosterone (CORT, 20 ng/0.3 µl/side) was performed 15 min before the first extinction trial (Ext 1) which attenuated auditory fear expression in subsequent extinction trials (Ext 1–3), demonstrating fear memory extinction enhancement. Co-injection of the GABAA agonist muscimol (250 ng/0.3 µl/side) or the GABAB agonist baclofen (250 ng/0.3 µl/side) 15 min before corticosterone, did not significantly affect the facilitative effects of corticosterone on fear extinction. However, co-injection of the GABAA antagonist bicuculline (BIC, 100 ng/0.3 µl/side) or the GABAB antagonist CGP35348 (CGP, 100 ng/0.3 µl/side) 15 min before corticosterone, blocked the facilitative effects of corticosterone on fear extinction. Moreover, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and cAMP response element-binding (CREB) in the IL were examined by Western blotting analysis after the first extinction trial (Ext 1) in some groups. Intra-IL injection of corticosterone increased the ERK activity but not CREB. Co-injection of the bicuculline or CGP35348 blocked the enhancing effect of corticosterone on ERK expression in the IL.Glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) activation in the IL cortex by corticosterone increased ERK activity and facilitated fear extinction. GABAA or GABAB antagonists decreased ERK activity and inhibited corticosterone's effect. GRs and GABA receptors in the IL cortex jointly modulate the fear extinction processes via the ERK pathway. This pre-clinical animal study may highlight GRs and GABA interactions in the IL cortex modulating fear memory processes in fear-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Range restriction, climate variability and human‐related risks imperil lizards world‐wide

AbstractAimsIdentifying major reasons for species imperilment is a necessary step for conservation, but the degree to which we can generalize is hard for species‐rich yet less‐studied taxa, such as lizards. Here, we aim to bridge the gap by providing comprehensive analyses of the correlates and processes of species extinction and threats for global lizards.LocationGlobal.Time periodCurrent.Major taxa studiedLizards.MethodsWe compiled a dataset comprising extinction risk status, six intrinsic traits and seven extrinsic factors for 5256 lizard species. We carried out binomial distribution tests for 43 families and seven realms to check the non‐randomness in species extinction risk and used phylogenetic linear regressions to identify the key factors that relate to the extinction proneness of lizards and species subgroups. Based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat assessment, we identified major threats for global lizards and for major families and regions.ResultsWe found strong evidence of taxonomic and geographical non‐randomness in the extinction risk of lizards. Geographical range size, human footprint and density, insular endemism, temperature and precipitation seasonality, and body size were key predictors of extinction risk, and the first three factors were also important across families and realms. Moreover, newly described species were more likely to have a restricted range size and a higher extinction risk. Globally, the most detrimental threat was habitat destruction, while overexploitation, species invasion and climate change varied widely in importance among species groups.Main conclusionsOverall, we highlight the detrimental influences of range restriction, climate variability and anthropogenic threats to species persistence. We suggest that lizards are potentially at high risk of extinction owing to widespread human disturbance and that species with extinction‐prone traits require conservation prioritization. Moreover, lizards of different families and regions require different management strategies because of variation in extinction‐risk correlates and threats.

Differential effects of thirst and satiety on conditioned taste aversion acquisition, retrieval, and memory extinction

Thirst is an essential motivational component that could modulate the strength of conditioning; pioneer studies show that the rats' sexual dimorphism observed in the rate of aversive memory extinction of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is affected by the state of fluid deprivation. On the other hand, previous evidence suggests that fluid intake volume and temporal context before and during conditioning may influence CTA. Furthermore, although CTA has been demonstrated using various types of stimuli, neural processing and homeostatic regulation of water and nutritional balance may differ depending on the stimulus used and the conditioning stages. Therefore, this study explored the effects of state motivated by thirst and satiation, using saccharin, as a non-caloric sweet stimulus, during CTA and the aversive memory extinction process under similar contextual and temporal conditions. First, we implemented an ad libitum water protocol in male and female adult rats to evaluate saccharin aversive memory formation; we compared this with a traditional CTA with liquid deprivation in the same context and temporal consumption conditions. Furthermore, we evaluated whether liquid satiety affects the acquisition or the aversive memory retrieval differentially. Our results show that the ad libitum liquid regimen allows reliable quantifications of basal water consumption, monitored every hour for more than five days. We observed a reliable CTA, where the magnitude of aversive memory and its extinction is significantly higher in both male and female rats; the strong CTA observed is substantially due to the satiety state during taste aversion memory retrieval. Our data show that although liquid deprivation does not affect CTA acquisition, it does induce weakness in the magnitude of aversive retrieval expression and fast aversive memory extinction, similarly in male and females. Overall, the results indicate that the need to satiate the demand for liquids during retrieval prevails over the conditioned aversion learned, suggesting, that thirst is a source of temporary variables dominating the aversive responses during CTA retrieval.

Extinction drives a discontinuous temporal pattern of species–area relationships in a microbial microcosm system

As the most potential ecological "law", the mechanism of the species-area relationship (SAR) remains controversial. Essentially, the SAR addresses the relationship between regional area and biodiversity, shaped by speciation, extinction and dispersal processes. Extinction is the process of loss and a direct cause of species richness differences in community. Therefore, it is crucial to elucidate the role of extinction in shaping SAR. Since the extinction process has temporal dynamics, we propose the hypothesis that the occurrence of SAR should also have temporal dynamics. Here, we designed independent closed microcosm systems, in which dispersal/speciation can be excluded/neglected to reveal the role of extinction in shaping the temporal dynamics pattern of SAR. We find that extinction can shape SAR in this system independent of the dispersal and speciation process. Due to the temporal dynamics of the extinction, SAR was temporally discontinuous. The small-scale extinctions modified community structure to promote ecosystem stability and shaped SAR, while mass extinction pushed the microcosm system into the next successional stage and dismissed SAR. Our result suggested that SAR could serve as an indicator of ecosystem stability; moreover, temporal discontinuity can explain many controversies in SAR studies.

Automated Start‐Up and Extinction Dynamics of a Mamyshev Oscillator Based on a Temperature‐Dependent Filter

AbstractMamyshev oscillators (MOs), which are based on an effective saturable absorber that arises from offset spectral filtering, are a new type of mode‐locked fiber lasers, but experimentally verifying the theory of the evolution of various dynamic characteristics of optical pulses in MOs has remained a major challenge due to the lack of appropriate filters and the means of real‐time, single‐shot experimental measurement. Here, the starting, extinction, and output dynamics of MOs are studied by designing and using a special temperature‐sensitive band‐pass filter, whose central wavelength can be continuously and accurately adjusted with temperature. The entire automated evolution of light pulses in the MO from start‐up to stable operation and then to extinction can be observed continuously by adjusting only the filter's temperature. What is more interesting is that the start‐up and the extinction processes are mirror symmetric, and both of them experience a double Q‐switching state. Further research has shown that the maximum filter interval corresponding to MO self‐starting is related to the pump power and that the bigger the pump power, the wider the filter interval. By gradually changing the interval between the two filters, the various output characteristics of the MO are also systematically studied.

Memory retrieval, reconsolidation, and extinction: Exploring the boundary conditions of post-conditioning cue exposure.

Following fear conditioning, behavior can be reduced by giving many CS-alone presentations in a process known as extinction or by presenting a few CS-alone presentations and interfering with subsequent memory reconsolidation. While the two share procedural similarities, both the behavioral outcomes and the neurobiological underpinnings are distinct. Here we review the neural and behavioral mechanisms that produce these separate behavioral reductions, as well as some factors that determine whether or not a retrieval-dependent reconsolidation process or an extinction process will be in effect.

Integrating genomics and conservation to safeguard plant diversity

AbstractConserving genetic diversity has been increasingly recognized as a keystone towards the protection of biodiversity and natural resources for future generations of humankind. In turn, the ongoing genomic revolution provides us with the technical innovations and expanded knowledge required to establish programs to integrate genomic approaches into programs to protect plant diversity and its genetic diversity. Although obtaining whole genomes of all organisms is still a far‐fetched dream, rapid progress in assembling whole genomes across the plant tree‐of‐life has provided access to reference genomes for many plants but, unfortunately, not all lineages of the plant tree‐of‐life. Addressing the existing taxon gaps is arguably best achieved by focusing on the genomes of plant species that experience high extinction threats or play a crucial role in ecosystem restoration. This review summarizes not only the recent progress in plant genomics with an emphasis on their importance to the conservation of plant diversity but also outlines steps to integrate genomics into plant conservation. Given the complexity of threats driving plant extinction, such as reduced genetic diversity, enhanced genome erosion, and loss of species integrity by hybridization, the integration of genomic research into our conservation efforts is crucial to understand extinction processes and, most importantly, to support the targets set to achieve “Harmony with Nature.”

Should we talk of “extinction society”? A socio‐cultural reading

AbstractIn this work, we intend to present a reading of current society as the extinction society. Extinction society here means the characterization, both social and individual, of a highly developed reality, especially in terms of personal freedom, unable to face global collective threats, first of all the climate disaster. This involves the risk, within a few generations, of the extinction of both the type of society that at least in the West we have been accustomed to for a few hundred years, and in the apocalyptic perspective of the species. The attempt to represent this question is addressed here by referring to some recent authors of cultural studies and sociology, to try and understand the principles of this extinction process. Following the analysis of what is in fact a process of individual liberation, that is, of increasingly advanced individualization, we proceed by looking at the macro‐themes of consumption, politics and psyche. This is in order to understand the possible outcomes of this process and the overall sense of an extinction of the current society if not of the species.

Spontaneous recovery of reward memory through active forgetting of extinction memory

Learned behavior can be suppressed by the extinction procedure. Such extinguished memory often returns spontaneously over time, making it difficult to treat diseases such as addiction. However, the biological mechanisms underlying such spontaneous recovery remain unclear. Here, we report that the extinguished reward memory in Drosophila recovers spontaneously because extinction training forms an aversive memory that can be actively forgotten via the Rac1/Dia pathway. Manipulating Rac1 activity does not affect sugar-reward memory and its immediate extinction effect but bidirectionally regulates spontaneous recovery-the decay process of extinction. Experiments using thermogenetic inhibition and functional imaging support that such extinction appears to be coded as an aversive experience. Genetic and pharmacological inhibition of formin Dia, a downstream effector of Rac1, specifically prevents spontaneous recovery after extinction in both behavioral performance and corresponding physiological traces. Together, ourdata suggest that spontaneous recovery is caused by active forgetting of the opposing extinction memory.

Population genomics of the island thrush elucidates one of earth's great archipelagic radiations.

Tropical islands are renowned as natural laboratories for evolutionary study. Lineage radiations across tropical archipelagos are ideal systems for investigating how colonization, speciation, and extinction processes shape biodiversity patterns. The expansion of the island thrush across the Indo-Pacific represents one of the largest yet most perplexing island radiations of any songbird species. The island thrush exhibits a complex mosaic of pronounced plumage variation across its range and is arguably the world's most polytypic bird. It is a sedentary species largely restricted to mountain forests, yet it has colonized a vast island region spanning a quarter of the globe. We conducted a comprehensive sampling of island thrush populations and obtained genome-wide SNP data, which we used to reconstruct its phylogeny, population structure, gene flow, and demographic history. The island thrush evolved from migratory Palearctic ancestors and radiated explosively across the Indo-Pacific during the Pleistocene, with numerous instances of gene flow between populations. Its bewildering plumage variation masks a biogeographically intuitive stepping stone colonization path from the Philippines through the Greater Sundas, Wallacea, and New Guinea to Polynesia. The island thrush's success in colonizing Indo-Pacific mountains can be understood in light of its ancestral mobility and adaptation to cool climates; however, shifts in elevational range, degree of plumage variation and apparent dispersal rates in the eastern part of its range raise further intriguing questions about its biology.

Study on the Lower Limits of Physical Parameters for Heavy Oil Reservoirs during the In Situ Combustion Process.

As an effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method in the late stage of the steam injection process, in situ combustion (ISC) has been verified by more and more researchers owing to its high recovery efficiency and low operation cost. However, the ISC process is prone to bringing about an unfavorable result with a low sweep efficiency and even an extinction process due to the complexity and uncertainty in oil and water distribution as well as the heterogeneity of the actual reservoir. In this work, combustion tube experiments combined with numerical simulations by CMG-STARS were conducted to study the influence of a reservoir's physical parameters on the stability of ISC. It was found that the sustainability of the combustion process is sensitive to permeability and oil saturation, the lower limits of which are determined as 0.2 μm2 and 0.2, respectively. Then, a formula was preliminarily proposed as 0.25 ≤ So/K ≤ 0.8, which could be used as a reference of screening criteria in designing the ISC process.

Testing the passive sampling hypothesis: The role of dispersal in shaping microbial species-area relationship.

Dispersal is one of the key processes determining biodiversity. The passive sampling hypothesis, which emphasizes dispersal processes, suggests that larger habitats receive more species from the species pool as the main mechanism leading to more species in larger habitats than in smaller habitats (i.e., species-area relationships). However, the specific mechanisms by which dispersion shapes biodiversity still need to be discovered due to the difficulties of quantifying dispersal and the influence of multiple factors. Solving the above problem with a designed experiment is necessary to test the passive sampling hypothesis. This study designed a passive sampling experiment using sterile filter paper to quantify the microbial diffusion process, excluding the effects of pure sampling effects, habitat heterogeneity, and extinction processes. The results of high-throughput sequencing showed that a larger filter paper could receive more colonists, and the passive sampling hypothesis of SAR was confirmed. Dispersal shaped SAR by increasing species richness, especially rare species, and increasing the species replacement rate between habitats. These two processes are the mechanisms by which dispersal shapes biodiversity patterns. Compared with the results of this study, the commonly used mathematical model of passive sampling was able to predict the richness of non-rare species accurately but underestimated the richness of rare species. Underestimating rare species by mathematical models of passive sampling is more severe in small habitats. These findings provide new insights into the study of dispersal processes and the mechanism of species-area relationships.

Radicalization phenomena: Phase transitions, extinction processes and control of violent activities

In this work, we study a simple mathematical model to analyze the emergence and control of radicalization phenomena. The population consists of core and sensitive subpopulations, and their ways of life may be at least partially incompatible. In such a case, if a conflict exists, core agents act as inflexible individuals about the issue. On the other hand, the sensitive agents choose between two options: live peacefully with core population, or oppose it. This kind of modeling was recently considered by Galam and Javarone (2016) with constant pairwise couplings. Here, we consider the more general case with time-dependent transition rates, with the aim of study the impact of such time dependence on the critical behavior of the model. The analytical and numerical results show that the nonequilibrium active-absorbing phase transition can be suppressed in some cases, with the destruction of the absorbing phase where the radical agents disappear of the population in the stationary states.

Dispersal capacity underlies scale-dependent changes in species richness patterns under human disturbance.

Changes in the species richness of (meta-)communities emerge from changes in the relative species abundance distribution (SAD), the total density of individuals, and the amount of spatial aggregation of individuals from the same species. Yet, how human disturbance affects these underlying diversity components at different spatial scales and how this interacts with important species traits, like dispersal capacity, remain poorly understood. Using data of carabid beetle communities along a highly replicated urbanization gradient, we reveal that species richness in urban sites was reduced due to a decline in individual density as well as changes in the SAD at both small and large spatial scales. Changes in these components of species richness were linked to differential responses of groups of species that differ in dispersal capacity. The individual density effect on species richness was due to a drastic 90% reduction of low-dispersal individuals in more urban sites. Conversely, the decrease in species richness due to changes in the SAD at large (i.e., loss of species from the regional pool) and small (i.e., decreased evenness) spatial scales were driven by species with intermediate and high dispersal ability, respectively. These patterns coincide with the expected responses of these dispersal-type assemblages toward human disturbance, namely, (i) loss of low-dispersal species by local extinction processes, (ii) loss of higher-dispersal species from the regional species pool due to decreased habitat diversity, and (iii) dominance of a few highly dispersive species resulting in a decreased evenness. Our results demonstrate that dispersal capacity plays an essential role in determining scale-dependent changes in species richness patterns. Incorporating this information improves our mechanistic insight into how environmental change affects species diversity at different spatial scales, allowing us to better forecast how human disturbance will drive local and regional changes in biodiversity patterns.

Numerical study of instability mechanism in the air-core vortex formation process

Air-core vortices are a ubiquitous phenomenon in the intakes of hydropower stations. Due to the transient and instability of two-phase vorticial flow, the prediction of air-core vortex formation is challenging, and understanding of the instability mechanism remains elusive. In this study, the large eddy simulation (LES) method and a coupled level-set and volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) method are performed to study air-core vortex formation in a benchmark reservoir with a horizontal intake pipe. The process of air-core vortex formation can be classified into an inception stage, an instability stage, and a stability stage. In the instability stage, the surface vortex repeatedly goes through the process of inception, enhancement, attenuation, and extinction. The movement of the counterrotating secondary vortices and water surface level fluctuation plays a negative role in air-core vortex formation. The additional motion generated by the counterrotating pair drives the pair to the back wall. The main vortex undergoes attenuation due to the stretching/tilting effects induced by the secondary vortex. Water level fluctuations briefly increase the submergence depth, which in turn reduces the vertical velocity gradient and vertical vorticity, destabilizing the vortex. The perturbation of the air-core vortex by water level fluctuations is present only at the beginning of the instability stage.

Fear Extinction Learning in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Impairments in fear extinction processes have been implicated in the genesis and maintenance of debilitating psychopathologies, including Posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD). PTSD, classified as a trauma- and stressor-related disorder, is characterized by four symptom clusters: intrusive recollections of trauma, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, alterations in cognition and mood, and hyperarousal. One of the key pathological feature associated with the persistence of these symptoms is impaired fear extinction, as delineated in multiple studies employing Pavlovian fear-conditioning paradigms. These paradigms, comprising fear acquisition, extinction, extinction recall, and fear renewal phases, have illuminated the neurobiological substrates of PTSD. Dysfunctions in the neural circuits that mediate these fear learning and extinction processes can result in failure to extinguish fear responses and retain extinction memory, giving rise to enduring experience of fear and anxiety. The protective avoidance behaviors observed in individuals with PTSD further exacerbate intrusive symptoms and pose challenges to effective treatment strategies. A comprehensive analysis of fear conditioning and extinction processes, along with the underlying neurobiology, could significantly enhance our understanding of PTSD pathophysiology. This chapter delineates the role of fear extinction processes in PTSD, investigates the underlying neurobiological substrates, and underscores the therapeutic implications, while also identifying future research directions.

Enhancing Fear Extinction: Pharmacological Approaches.

Extinction is the process by which the memory of a learned conditioned association decreases over time and with introduction of new associations. It is a vital part of fear learning, and it is critical to recovery in multiple fear-related disorders, including Specific and Social Phobias, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The process of extinction is also the underlying mechanism for recovery in gold-standard therapies for PTSD, including prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, eye movement desensitization and procession, as well as other empirically-based paradigms.Pharmacological modulators of extinction are thus promising targets for treatment of fear-related disorders.We focus here on emerging psychopharmacological treatments to facilitate extinction: D-cycloserine, scopolamine, losartan, ketamine, and3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. We also provide an overview of recent advances in molecular pathways that show promise as targets for extincion and inhibitory learning, including pathways related to cannabinoid, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal signaling, andpromising work in neurosteroid compounds.

How Different Factors in Combination Change Fear Extinction Learning: The Case of Sex and Stress Hormones.

Effects of a specific factor on fear extinction or exposure therapy have revealed promising results, for example how sex or stress hormones exert the capability to critically change extinction learning and consolidation processes. However, we must acknowledge that in real life these factors do not operate in isolation, they go hand in hand. In this chapter, the available evidence regarding interactions of sex and stress hormones on extinction processes and exposure therapy will be integrated and discussed. First hints exist that these factors in combination critically target extinction learning and consolidation processes, calling for more detailed research on the exact underlying mechanisms. In addition to experiments with high sample sizes, we must aim for a collaborative effort of laboratories across the whole world to be able to identify critical combinations of factors associated with improved, but also impaired extinction processes and exposure therapy success. We expect that the revelation of further relevant factors will not only be limited to the interplay between sex and stress hormones but will include factors such as sleep and exercise as well. In the long run, uncovering the most important interaction effects will give us critical hints for differential treatment options to be realized in the sense of a personalized medicine approach.