Different Developmental Outcomes Following Lab Rearing by Biological or Adoptive Mothers: Maternal Influence on Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Separation Stress in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Authors

Whitney Maxwell, Brigham Young University
Dr. Dee Higley, Brigham Young University

Keywords

rearing, biological mothers, adoptive mothers, maternal influence, physiological influence, separation stress

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Under stressful conditions the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis increases in both humans and animals leading to an increase in production of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Maternal separation in nonhuman primates during infancy elicits behaviors characteristic of anxiety, such as withdrawal and nervous behavior and a substantial increase in ACTH (Higley and Linnoila 1997; Barr, Newman et al. 2004). Individual differences in anxiety in turn influence ACTH output, similar to what is seen in human children (Gunnar and Quevedo 2007). Infants response to separation physiologically and behaviorally is substantial and represents a significant stressor in the life of a young primate. Nonhuman primates are a good research subjects to model these changes in stress response because they allow researchers to control environmental variables in ways that we could not in humans.

Recommended Citation

Maxwell, Whitney and Higley, Dr. Dee (2013) "Different Developmental Outcomes Following Lab Rearing by Biological or Adoptive Mothers: Maternal Influence on Behavioral and Physiological Responses to Separation Stress in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 516.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/516