The social environment can have a powerful impact on an individual's stress response and thus affect health and biological fitness. Positive social interactions are particularly important for females of species living in complex societies, e.g. humans and non-human primates. Existing studies have mainly focussed on the effect of same-sex social interaction on the stress response, rather than bo...

Although the term environmental stress is used across multiple fields in biology, the inherent ambiguity associated with its definition has caused confusion when attempting to understand organismal responses to environmental change. Here I provide a brief summary of existing definitions of the term stress, and the related concepts of homeostasis and allostasis, and attempt to unify them to deve...

Understanding brain energy metabolism-neuroenergetics-is becoming increasingly important as it can be identified repeatedly as the source of neurological perturbations. Within the scientific community we are seeing a shift in paradigms from the traditional neurocentric view to that of a more dynamic, integrated one where astrocytes are no longer considered as being just supportive, and activate...

How do adverse childhood experiences get 'under the skin' and influence health outcomes through the life-course? Research reviewed here suggests that adverse childhood experiences are associated with changes in biological systems responsible for maintaining physiological stability through environmental changes, or allostasis. Children exposed to maltreatment showed smaller volume of the prefron...

Etiology of depressive disorders is still unknown. Several factors are involved in its pathophysiology such as neurotransmitters and neuroendocrine alterations, genetics, life events and their appraisal. Some of these components are strictly linked. Subjects with a family member affected by mood disorders are more prone to suffer from depressive disorders. It is also true that receiving feedbac...

Women serving in the military face many sources of stress, such as separation from home and family, sexual harassment and assault, and deployment to traumatic war zones. Some women are vulnerable to the effects of these stressors, resulting in deleterious mental and physical health outcomes. Understanding these risks through the theoretical model of allostasis can help identify those who will b...

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The brain and body respond to potential and actual stressful events by activating hormonal and neural mediators and modifying behaviors to adapt. Such responses help maintain physiological stability ("allostasis"). When behavioral or physiological stressors are frequent and/or severe, allostatic responses can become dysregulated and maladaptive ("allostatic load"). Allostatic load may alter bra...