Cited by 512Stress Responses and CortisolNeuroendocrine regulation and behaviorMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Effect of social isolation on stress-related behavioural and neuroendocrine state in the rat

Weiss, Isabelle C, Pryce, Christopher R, Jongen-Rêlo, Ana L, Nanz-Bahr, Nina I, Feldon, Joram·2004·Behavioural Brain Research

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of post-weaning social isolation (SI) on behavioural and neuroendocrine reactivity to stress of male and female rats. Innate aspects of fear and anxiety were assessed in the open field and elevated plus maze tests. Spontaneous startle reflex and conditioned fear response were further investigated. The neuroendocrine response of isolates was examined by measuring basal and stress release of ACTH and corticosterone and by evaluating the mRNA expression of mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid (GR) receptors using in situ hybridization. Locomotor activity in the open field was not modified by chronic SI. In males, but not females, SI produced an anxiogenic profile in the elevated plus maze. Male isolates showed a trend towards increased startle reflex amplitude relative to socially-reared controls. Moreover, SI in males produced alterations of the HPA axis functioning as reflected by higher basal levels of ACTH, and enhanced release of ACTH and corticosterone following stress. In contrast, startle response or HPA axis functioning were not altered in female isolates. Social isolates from both genders showed reduced contextual fear-conditioning. Finally, the mRNA expression of MR and GR was not modified by SI. The results of the present study suggest that chronic SI increases emotional reactivity to stress and produces a hyperfunction of the HPA axis in adult rats, particularly in males.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.bbr.2003.10.015

Cites

79 of 79 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Social isolation after weaning increases HPA axis sensitivity, particularly in males, and leads to an anxiety-like profile.

    “As with maternal separation, post-weaning social isolation results in enhanced sensitivity of the HPA axis, especially in male rats (Holson et al., 1991; Viveros et al., 1988; Weiss et al., 2004), as well as an overall anxiogenic phenotype.”

    From The effects of early life stress on reward processing (2018) · cites this paper as Weiss et al., 2004

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Weiss, I. C., Pryce, C. R., Jongen-Rêlo, A. L., Nanz-Bahr, N. I., & Feldon, J.
Affiliations
ETH Zurich (CH)
Corresponding author
Feldon, Joram
Venue
Behavioural Brain Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2004-07
Volume
152
Issue
2
Pages
279-295
ISSN
0166-4328 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2076236287
Cited by
512
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 26
FWCI
3.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Behavioural Brain Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science
  • Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Keywords
social isolation, post-weaning social isolation, stress reactivity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, ACTH, corticosterone, mineralocorticoid receptor, glucocorticoid receptor, anxiety, fear conditioning, startle response, sex differences, neuroendocrine response, rats
MeSH terms
Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Analysis of Variance, Animals, Animals, Newborn, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Conditioning, Psychological, Corticosterone, Fear, Female, Glucocorticoids, Immunohistochemistry, Kidney, Male, Motor Activity, Neurosecretory Systems, Radioimmunoassay, Random Allocation, Reflex, Acoustic, Sex Factors, Social Isolation, Stress, Physiological, Weaning, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, In Situ Hybridization, Receptors, Mineralocorticoid, Maze Learning, Rats

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review