HE400 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cortisol, Social Inequality, Corticosterone
Document Summary
Title: putting the concept of biological embedding in historical perspective. Socioeconomic gradient: applies to a broad range of outcomes, british whitehall study: smoking, bp, cv risk factors explain differences in mortality among individuals but not heart disease mortality. Replication of new diseases: 20th century main cause of death: infectious disease, 21st century main cause of death: chronic disease, show same pattern in socioeconomic gradient but different diseases. Flattening up: flatter gradients = better average outcome, to make more average pull up the lower groups. Example 1: hpa axis: poorly attached toddlers to mothers have a more reactive hpa axis & less adaptive behavioural responses, neglected baby orphans = high cortisol reactors, socio-emotional, cognitive, developmental disturbances that lasted into adolescence. Example 2: prefrontal cortex in socioeconomic context: studied high & low ses neighbourhoods, high ses ignore distractors = easier time with focused attention, low ses attend to distractors = harder time with focused attention.
