Abstract:
Field studies of natural mammal populations present powerful opportunities to investigate the determinants of health and aging using fine-grained observations of known individuals across the life course. Here, we synthesize five decades of findings from one such study: the wild baboons of the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya. First, we discuss the profound associations between early life adversity, adult social conditions, and key aging outcomes in this population, especially survival. Second, we review potential mediators of the relationship between early life adversity and survival in our population. Notably, our tests of two leading candidate mediators-social isolation and glucocorticoid levels-fail to identify a single, strong mediator of early life effects on adult survival. Instead, early adversity, social isolation, and glucocorticoids are independently linked to adult lifespans, suggesting considerable scope for mitigating the negative consequences of early life adversity. Third, we review our work on the evolutionary rationale for early life effects on mortality, which currently argues against clear predictive adaptive responses. Finally, we end by highlighting major themes emerging from the study of sociality, development, and aging in the Amboseli baboons, as well as important open questions for future work.
摘要:
自然哺乳动物种群的实地研究提供了强大的机会,可以使用对整个生命过程中已知个体的细粒度观察来研究健康和衰老的决定因素。这里,我们从一项这样的研究中综合了五十年的发现:肯尼亚安博塞利生态系统的野生狒狒。首先,我们讨论了早期生活逆境之间的深刻联系,成人社会条件,以及这个人群的主要老龄化结果,尤其是生存。第二,我们回顾了我们人群早期生活逆境与生存之间关系的潜在中介因素。值得注意的是,我们对两个主要的候选中介——社会隔离和糖皮质激素水平——的测试未能确定一个,早期生活对成人生存影响的强大媒介。相反,早期逆境,社会孤立,糖皮质激素与成人寿命独立相关,为减轻早期生活逆境的负面影响提供了相当大的空间。第三,我们回顾了我们关于早期生命对死亡率影响的进化原理的工作,目前反对明确的预测性适应性反应。最后,最后,我们强调了社会性研究中出现的主要主题,发展,在安博塞利狒狒中衰老,以及未来工作的重要开放性问题。