Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23607429›Full record

ReviewPsychological bulletin2014

Psychobiological mechanisms underlying the social buffering of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis: a review of animal models and human studies across development.

Camelia E Hostinar, Regina M Sullivan, Megan R Gunnar

Registry-linked trialAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Psychological bulletin, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03436706 (Pre-adolescent Stress and Health Study), which is not on this map. Cited by 334 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
334citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03436706 withdrawnnot on this mapstarted 2019, after this paper: background citation

Pre-adolescent Stress and Health Study

TypeobservationalSponsorPenn State UniversityRan2019 to 2024Enrolled0ConditionsStressArmsexposure
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

334 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Trial
  8. Trial
  9. Trial
  10. Trial
  11. Trial
  12. Trial
  13. Trial
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. The Legacy of Seymour Levine.Neurobiology of stress · 2026
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

274 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Camelia E HostinarInstitute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.
Regina M SullivanEmotional Brain Institute, Nathan S. Kline Institute, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center.
Megan R GunnarInstitute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.

Funding

Project 3: The neurobiology of adverse early care in rhesus infants....P50MH078105 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · PI GUNNAR, MEGAN R · 2009 to 2013
$9.9M
Recovery from Early Life Stress in Children Adopted from InstitutionsR01MH080905 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · PI GUNNAR, MEGAN R · 2008 to 2012
$2.4M
Sensitive Period for Neurobehavioral Development of Social BehaviorR01MH091451 · NIMH · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · PI SULLIVAN, REGINA MARIE · 2010 to 2014
$2.0M
Ontogeny of Olfactory Hedonic EncodingR01DC009910 · NIDCD · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · PI SULLIVAN, REGINA MARIE · 2009 to 2013
$1.7M
NIDCD NIH HHS DC009910NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC009910NIMH NIH HHS MH078105NIMH NIH HHS MH080905NIMH NIH HHS MH091451NIMH NIH HHS P50 MH078105NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH080905NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH091451
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Discovering the stress-buffering effects of social relationships has been one of the major findings in psychobiology in the last century. However, an understanding of the underlying neurobiological and psychological mechanisms of this buffering is only beginning to emerge. An important avenue of this research concerns the neurocircuitry that can regulate the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. The present review is a translational effort aimed at integrating animal models and human studies of the social regulation of the HPA axis from infancy to adulthood, specifically focusing on the process that has been named social buffering. This process has been noted across species and consists of a dampened HPA axis stress response to threat or challenge that occurs with the presence or assistance of a conspecific. We describe aspects of the relevant underlying neurobiology when enough information exists and expose major gaps in our understanding across all domains of the literatures we aimed to integrate. We provide a working conceptual model focused on the role of oxytocinergic systems and prefrontal neural networks as 2 of the putative biological mediators of this process, and propose that the role of early experiences is critical in shaping later social buffering effects. This synthesis points to both general future directions and specific experiments that need to be conducted to build a more comprehensive model of the HPA social buffering effect across the life span that incorporates multiple levels of analysis: neuroendocrine, behavioral, and social.

Indexed as

Interpersonal RelationsAnimalsHumansHypothalamo-Hypophyseal SystemPituitary-Adrenal SystemPrefrontal Cortex

Identifiers

PMID23607429
PMCPMC3844011

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.