Social Instability Stress in Adolescence and Social Interaction in Female Rats
Abstract
Adolescence is a critical time of brain development for regions governing social behaviour and social learning. Social experiences influence the ongoing maturation of the neural structures and ultimately modify the social behaviour of adults in response to social cues. Social instability stress in adolescence (SS; daily 1-hour isolation + change of cage partner in postnatal days [PND] 30-45) leads to a long-lasting reduction in social interaction in SS rats compared with non-stressed (CTL) rats in males; here we investigate females. In a first experiment, we found that female rats exposed to adolescent SS also showed the decrement in social interaction irrespective of age at which tested, and replicated the effects previously found in males. In experiment 2, which involved females only, SS and CTL rats did not differ in anxiety-like behaviour in the elevated plus maze (EPM) and the reduction in social interaction was not significant. Nevertheless, when tested in adolescence at P47 (and not at P71), SS female rats had higher corticosterone release during the social interaction test than did CTL rats, and they exhibited a different pattern of neural activation as measured by immunoreactivity to the protein products of zif268 and c-fos (SS CTL in hippocampus), and reduced oxytocin immunoreactivity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus than did CTL rats. These results extend our previous findings of effects of SS in adolescent female rats on behavioural responses to…
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During puberty, stressors have stronger behavioral effects in females than males.
“Preclinical studies show that during puberty, stressors have stronger behavioral effects on behavior in females than males (20–22).”
From Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty (2023) · cites this paper as [20]
Sex differences in stress sensitivity emerge at puberty in humans and other animals, coinciding with an increased incidence of anxiety in women.
“Sex differences in stress sensitivity emerge at puberty in both humans (63, 64) and other animals (20–22), coinciding with an increased incidence of anxiety in women (10, 12, 14, 15).”
From Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty (2023) · cites this paper as [20]
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Sexual differentiation of neural mechanisms of stress sensitivity during puberty
Wright, E. C., Luo, P. X., Zakharenkov, H. C., Serna Godoy, A., Lake, A. A., Prince, Z. D., Sekar, S., Culkin, H. I., Ramirez, A. V., Dwyer, T., et al. (2023) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2306475120 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
- Authors
- Asgari, P., McKinney, G., Hodges, T. E., & McCormick, C. M.
- Affiliations
- Brock University (CA)
- Venue
- Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-11
- Volume
- 477
- Pages
- 1-13
- ISSN
- 0306-4522 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3202631042
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 2.69
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- adolescence, female rats, social interaction, social behavior, corticosterone, anxiety-like behavior, Zif268, c-fos, oxytocin, paraventricular nucleus, medial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, neuronal activation
- MeSH terms
- Social Interaction, Animals, Anxiety, Corticosterone, Female, Male, Social Behavior, Stress, Psychological, Rats, Long-Evans, Rats
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