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Cited by 34Stress Responses and CortisolNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Stress-induced activity in the locus coeruleus is not sensitive to stressor controllability

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McDevitt, Ross A., Szot, Patricia, Baratta, Michael V., Bland, Sondra T., White, Sylvia S., Maier, Steven F., Neumaier, John F.·2009·Brain Research
DOI 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.06.017PMC PMC2739002
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Abstract

An important factor in determining the adverse consequences of a stress experience is the degree to which an individual can exert control over the stressor. Stressor controllability is known to influence brain norepinephrine levels, but its impact on activity in noradrenergic cell bodies is unknown. In the present study we investigated whether noradrenergic neurons within the locus coeruleus (LC), the major source of forebrain norepinephrine, are sensitive to stressor controllability. We exposed adult male Sprague-Dawley rats to escapable or yoked inescapable tailshock and assessed LC activity by measuring changes in the immediate early gene c-fos and the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). We used in situ hybridization to measure levels of c-fos mRNA, TH mRNA, and TH primary transcript in the LC. In all three cases stress exposure increased expression relative to an unstressed homecage control group, but expression did not differ between controllable and uncontrollable stress. To further examine whether stressor controllability influences the number of stress-responsive LC neurons we performed double-label immunohistochemistry for TH and Fos. Again we detected an overall effect of stress, which did not differ between controllable and uncontrollable stress. We conclude that exposure to stress robustly increases expression of TH and c-fos in the LC, but this effect is not influenced by stressor controllability. To the extent that the expression of these genes reflects degree of neuronal activation, our results suggest that stress-induced activity of noradrenergic cell bodies in the LC is not sensitive to stressor controllability.

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  • DRN does not receive greater excitatory input during inescapable shock than during escapable shock.

    “So, the conclusion is that the dorsal raphe nucleus does not receive any heightened excitation from inescapable shock relative to escapable shock.”

    From Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience. (2016) · cites this paper as McDevitt et al., 2009

    The Discussion (page not provided) says the dorsal raphe shows reduced activity during controllable stress and describes an inhibitory pathway activated under that condition. This supports inhibition during escapable shock as an explanation for the activity difference, but it does not establish that inescapable shock produces no greater excitatory input. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Authors
McDevitt, R. A., Szot, P., Baratta, M. V., Bland, S. T., White, S. S., Maier, S. F., & Neumaier, J. F.
Affiliations
  • University of Washington (US)
  • VA Puget Sound Health Care System (US)
  • University of Colorado Boulder (US)
ORCID
Venue
Brain Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-08
Volume
1285
Pages
109-118
ISSN
0006-8993 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.brainres.2009.06.017
PMC
PMC2739002
OpenAlex
W1992964150
Cited by
34
References
72
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 2
FWCI
0.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Brain Research (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  • National Institutes of Health (5t32gm007108-40)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH63303, MH050479, R37MH050479, R01MH063303, F31MH075213, R01MH050479)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32GM-007108, GM-07108)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Keywords
locus coeruleus, stressor controllability, stress response, noradrenergic neurons, norepinephrine, inescapable stress, c-fos, tyrosine hydroxylase, neuronal activation
MeSH terms
Animals, Avoidance Learning, Electric Stimulation, Fear, Gene Expression Regulation, Helplessness, Learned, Immunohistochemistry, Locus Coeruleus, Male, Neurons, Norepinephrine, RNA, Messenger, Stress, Psychological, Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase, Volition, Up-Regulation, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-fos, Rats, Sprague-Dawley, In Situ Hybridization, Rats

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