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Review
. 2011 Jun;35(7):1562-92.
doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.11.007. Epub 2010 Dec 8.

The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity

Marco Del Giudice  1 , Bruce J Ellis, Elizabeth A Shirtcliff
Affiliations
Review

The Adaptive Calibration Model of stress responsivity

Marco Del Giudice et al. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011 Jun.

Abstract

This paper presents the Adaptive Calibration Model (ACM), an evolutionary-developmental theory of individual differences in the functioning of the stress response system. The stress response system has three main biological functions: (1) to coordinate the organism's allostatic response to physical and psychosocial challenges; (2) to encode and filter information about the organism's social and physical environment, mediating the organism's openness to environmental inputs; and (3) to regulate the organism's physiology and behavior in a broad range of fitness-relevant areas including defensive behaviors, competitive risk-taking, learning, attachment, affiliation and reproductive functioning. The information encoded by the system during development feeds back on the long-term calibration of the system itself, resulting in adaptive patterns of responsivity and individual differences in behavior. Drawing on evolutionary life history theory, we build a model of the development of stress responsivity across life stages, describe four prototypical responsivity patterns, and discuss the emergence and meaning of sex differences. The ACM extends the theory of biological sensitivity to context (BSC) and provides an integrative framework for future research in the field.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual structure of the Adaptive Calibration Model. SRS: stress response system; LH: life history; OT: oxytocin; 5-HT: serotonin, DA: dopamine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The Adaptive Calibration Model of individual differences in development of stress responsivity. At a very general level, a nonlinear relation exists between exposures to environmental stress and support during development and optimal levels of stress responsivity. Although this nonlinear relation is specified for the stress response system (SRS; see Table 1), it may apply to other neurobiological systems as well. The figure does not imply that all components of the SRS will show identical responsivity profiles, nor that they will activate at the same time or over the same time course. Male/female symbols indicate sex-typical patterns of responsivity, but substantial within-sex differences in responsivity are expected as well.
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