The symphonic structure of childhood stress reactivity: patterns of sympathetic, parasympathetic, and adrenocortical responses to psychological challenge.
2014
Despite widespread recognition that the physiological systems underlying stress reactivity are well coordinated at a neurobiological level, surprisingly little empirical attentionhasbeengivento delineatingpreciselyhowthesystemsactuallyinteract withoneanotherwhenconfrontedwith stress. Weexaminedcrosssystem response proclivities in anticipation of and following standardized laboratory challenges in 664 4- to 14-year-olds from four
independent studies. In each study, measures of stress reactivity within both the
locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system (i.e., the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the
autonomic nervous system) and the corticotrophin releasing hormone system (i.e., the
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis) were collected. Latent profile analyses revealed six distinctive patterns that recurred across the samples: moderate reactivity (average cross-system activation; 52%–80% of children across samples), parasympathetic-specific reactivity (2%–36%), anticipatory arousal (4%–9%), multisystem reactivity (7%–14%),
hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axisspecific reactivity (6%–7%), and underarousal (0%–2%). Groups meaningfully differed in socioeconomic status, family adversity, and age. Results highlight the sample-level reliability of children’s neuroendocrine responses to stress and suggest important cross-system regularities that are linked to development and prior experiences and may have implications for subsequent physical and mental morbidity.
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