Maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis response to foraging uncertainty: A model of individual vs. social allostasis and the "Superorganism Hypothesis".

In response to a chronic stressor, relative dyadic vulnerability plays a significant role in determining the directionality and magnitude of individual maternal HPA axis responses in the service of maintaining a "superorganism" version of HPA axis homeostasis, provisionally termed "social allostasis."