Behavioral, but not physiological, adaptation to repeated separation in mother and infant primates

Mother and infant squirrel monkeys were subjected to a series of brief separations in order to evaluate how behavioral and physiological responses change following multiple exposures to stress. Beginning when the infants reached three months of age, their behavioral and hormonal responses were assessed during six 1-hr separations; and additional five dyads served as controls for the effect of repeated disturbance. The separated infants showed a marked and progressive decrease in distress calling across time, but no change was observed in the high levels of agitated activity or the plasma cortisol response to separation. This finding questions the traditional use of distress vocalizations as a measure of stress and indicates that certain types of behavior can change independently of physiological arousal responses, which may continue to occur even after repeated exposures to stress.