Effects of a single footshock followed by situational reminders on HPA axis and behaviour in the aversive context in male and female rats

Louvart, Hélène; Maccari, Stefania; Lésage, Jean; Léonhardt, Marion; Dickes-Coopman, Anne; Darnaudéry, Muriel

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2005.05.014

Cited by 67 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…This observation is consistent with findings from numerous other studies that have shown greater glucocorticoid reactivity by female, compared with male, rodents (Weinstock et al 1998;Bowman et al 2006;Louvart et al 2006). There appear to be species differences in stressor reactivity, however, in that men tend to exhibit greater glucocorticoid responses to stress than women (for a comprehensive review, see Kudielka and Kirschbaum 2005).…”

Section: Correlations Between Cort and Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 89%

Acute predator stress impairs the consolidation and retrieval of hippocampus-dependent memory in male and female rats

Park¹,

Zoladz²,

Conrad³

et al. 2008

Learn. Mem.

157

105

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We have studied the effects of an acute predator stress experience on spatial learning and memory in adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. All rats were trained to learn the location of a hidden escape platform in the radial-arm water maze (RAWM), a hippocampus-dependent spatial memory task. In the control (non-stress) condition, female rats were superior to the males in the accuracy and consistency of their spatial memory performance tested over multiple days of training. In the stress condition, rats were exposed to the cat for 30 min immediately before or after learning, or before the 24-h memory test. Predator stress dramatically increased corticosterone levels in males and females, with females exhibiting greater baseline and stress-evoked responses than males. Despite these sex differences in the overall magnitudes of corticosterone levels, there were significant sex-independent correlations involving basal and stress-evoked corticosterone levels, and memory performance. Most importantly, predator stress impaired short-term memory, as well as processes involved in memory consolidation and retrieval, in male and female rats. Overall, we have found that an intense, ethologically relevant stressor produced a largely equivalent impairment of memory in male and female rats, and sex-independent corticosterone-memory correlations. These findings may provide insight into commonalities in how traumatic stress affects the brain and memory in men and women.Over a century of behavioral research has revealed a powerful influence of stress on learning and memory (James, 1890;Yerkes and Dodson 1908;Hebb 1955;McGaugh 2000). The literature in this area lacks consistency, however, with studies reporting that stress can enhance, impair, or have no effect on learning and memory (for reviews, see Conrad 2005;Diamond 2005;Lupien et al. 2005;Diamond et al. 2007). An added level of complexity in the stress-memory literature involves the influence of gender on stress-memory interactions (Shors 1998;Wolf et al. 2001;Wolf 2003;Cahill et al. 2004;Cahill 2006). Some research has indicated that stress can impair memory in men but not women (Wolf et al. 2001), but other work has shown that stress can enhance memory in women (Andreano and Cahill 2006). Stress has also been shown to produce opposite effects on the development of conditioned responses in classical conditioning in men and women. However, in contrast to the studies mentioned above, Jackson et al. (2005) reported that stress produced an enhancement of fear conditioning in men and an impairment in women. Finally, other work has demonstrated that stress or cortisol administration can impair memory in both men and women (Kirschbaum et al. 1996;de Quervain et al. 2000;Wolf et al. 2004).Studies investigating sex differences in stress-memory interactions in rodents have also produced inconsistent findings. Acute stress has been shown to impair spatial memory in male rats (Diamond et al. 1996(Diamond et al. , 19992006;Conrad et al. 2004;Sandi et al. 2005) and to enhance spatial...

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Section: Correlations Between Cort and Behaviorsupporting

confidence: 89%

Acute predator stress impairs the consolidation and retrieval of hippocampus-dependent memory in male and female rats

Park¹,

Zoladz²,

Conrad³

et al. 2008

Learn. Mem.

157

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, startle amplitude in the shocked mice which received reminders was progressively increased with repetitions of the reminders. These original studies have recently been extended to rats by Louvart et al (Louvart et al, 2005;Louvart et al, 2006), who modified the model by using fewer (three) contextual reminders but nonetheless again demonstrated that a single exposure to inescapable footshock followed by brief weekly contextual reminders persistently increased anxiety-like behavior, altered social behavior, and increased avoidance, further demonstrating consistency between responses in this rodent [TS+R] paradigm and PTSD. In the Pynoos et al time-dependent sensitization model the repeated contextual reminders were demonstrated to play a necessary role in the progressive development of persistently increased startle and other parameters characteristic of PTSD, consistent with evidence that re-exposure to distinctive cues which had been present during a traumatic event can play an important role in development of chronic PTSD (Pitman, 1988) and that the subset of individuals who develop PTSD following trauma exhibit a progressive increase in startle reactivity over the months following the traumatic event (Shalev et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Acoustic startle amplitude predicts vulnerability to develop post-traumatic stress hyper-responsivity and associated plasma corticosterone changes in rats

Rasmussen

Crites

Burke

2008

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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SummaryFollowing exposure to trauma, a vulnerable sub-population of individuals develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with characteristic persistent autonomic hyper-responsivity, associated increased startle response, and commonly altered hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal regulation. A goal of this investigation was to identify a predictive marker for this vulnerability. Previous investigators have developed a model for PTSD in which male mice were exposed to a single brief episode of inescapable footshock followed by one-minute contextual reminders of this trauma at weekly intervals for six weeks. Exposure to these reminders induced a progressive and persistent increase in the amplitude of acoustic startle consistent with the persistently increased acoustic startle of individuals exhibiting PTSD. We adapted this model to adult male Wistar rats, with added characterization of initial (pre-trauma) startle response. After one episode of inescapable footshock (10 second, 2 mA) or control treatment followed by six weekly one-minute contextual reminders, acoustic startle was re-tested. Data were analyzed after dividing rats within each treatment into LOW vs MID vs HIGH (33% in each group) pre-treatment startle responders. Rats which exhibited pretreatment LOW-and MID-range acoustic startle responses did not develop increased acoustic startle responses following subsequent traumatic stress + reminders ([TS+R]) treatment. However, rats which exhibited HIGH pre-treatment startle responses exhibited further significant (p<0.01) [TS+R]-induced persistent enhancement of this already elevated startle response. Furthermore, rats exhibiting HIGH pre-treatment startle responses were also the only subgroup which exhibited increased basal plasma corticosterone levels following [TS+R] treatment. These results suggest that initial pre-stress acoustic startle response can identify subgroups of rats which are predisposed to, or resistant to, developing a PTSD-like syndrome following subsequent trauma.

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“…First, Carobrez et al (2002) observed that previous exposure to socialdefeat caused, 1 week later, a reduction of the corticosterone response to an acute dose of endotoxin. Second, exposure to one single severe shock followed by weekly exposure to situational reminders (see Section 3.2) resulted in a normal corticosterone response to restraint stress in males and a reduced corticosterone response during the post-stress period in females, as compared to respective control animals (Louvart et al, 2006). Quite interestingly, exposure to shock and situational reminders reduced resting CRF gene expression in the PVN in both males and females.…”

Section: Response To Heterotypic Stressorsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Long-term neuroendocrine and behavioural effects of a single exposure to stress in adult animals

Armario

Escorihuela

Nadal

2008

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

140

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Effects of a single footshock followed by situational reminders on HPA axis and behaviour in the aversive context in male and female rats

Cited by 67 publications

References 41 publications

Acute predator stress impairs the consolidation and retrieval of hippocampus-dependent memory in male and female rats

Acute predator stress impairs the consolidation and retrieval of hippocampus-dependent memory in male and female rats

Acoustic startle amplitude predicts vulnerability to develop post-traumatic stress hyper-responsivity and associated plasma corticosterone changes in rats

Long-term neuroendocrine and behavioural effects of a single exposure to stress in adult animals

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