"We speculate that stress might cause these abnormalities in the first place – that speculation lies outside what we can show in our study, it is primarily based on the fact that this specific brain area is very sensitive to developmental stress.
The study "helps confirm that there can be lasting consequences of developmental stress [on singing]," says Steve Nowicki, a neurobiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
In addition to injury, Neanderthal remains show elevated developmental stress, suggesting an elevated level of hardship during childhood and throughout life (e.g., Ogilvie et al. 1989; but see Guattelli-Steinberg et al. 2004).
There was some evidence that hand-reared birds were less neophobic and less impulsive than wild-caught birds, suggesting that hand rearing might alter emotionally mediated decision making in a direction usually associated with reduced developmental stress in mammals.
Another indirect measure of developmental stress is fluctuating asymmetry (FA).
For example, whole-bee protein levels can serve as an indirect measure of developmental stress [12].
The S100 calcium binding protein A4 gene has been shown to be involved in developmental stress responses [29].
Shorter periods of developmental stress, affecting either nestlings or fledglings, thus appear to be of specific ecological relevance.
The adult flies survived developmental stress have short lifespan (Fig. 2A), suggesting that impairment of stem/progenitor cells induces certain delayed effect(s) on the nervous tissue.
It has also been suggested the preference for symmetry of tails in bird species may in fact be due to aerodynamics and not developmental stress [17].
Several traits important in reproduction and thus relevant to fitness develop at this stage and males may not be able to compensate without costs for developmental stress experienced at that time.
