Active behaviour during early development shapes glucocorticoid reactivity

TGlucocorticoids are the final effectors of the stress axis, with numerous targets in the central nervous system and the periphery. They are essential for adaptation, yet currently it is unclear how early life events program the glucocorticoid response to stress. Here we provide evidence that involuntary swimming at early developmental stages can reconfigure the cortisol response to homotypic and heterotypic stress in larval zebrafish (Danio rerio), also reducing startle reactivity and increasing spontaneous activity as well as energy efficiency during active behaviour. Collectively, these data identify a role of the genetically malleable zebrafish for linking early life stress with glucocorticoid function in later life

Post-institutionalized Chinese and Eastern European children: Heterogeneity in the development of emotion understanding

Post-institutionalized Chinese and Eastern European children participated in two emotion understandingtasks. In one task, children selected facial expressions corresponding to four emotion labels(happy, sad, angry, scared). The second task required children to match facial expressions to storiesdescribing situations for these emotions. While both post-institutionalized groups scored lower thanthe never-institutionalized children, those from China performed better than those from EasternEurope. Post-institutionalized children’s performance was predicted by their age at adoption