Methods and Challenges in Investigating Sex-Specific Consequences of Social Stressors in Adolescence in Rats: Is It the Stress or the Social or the Stage of Development?

McCormick, Cheryl M.

doi:10.1007/7854_2021_245

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 215 publications

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“…Our findings support theories arguing that early-mid adolescence, which coincides with pre– and peripubertal periods (McCormick, 2022), is a particularly sensitive developmental window where alcohol exposure can pervasively impact mesolimbic and corticolimbic circuit refinement. Our results are congruent with disturbed developmental trajectories of limbic regions like BLA, mPFC, and hippocampus, and potentially including dopaminergic function as they related to behavior in ambiguous contexts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Voluntary alcohol consumption during distinct phases of adolescence differentially alters adult fear acquisition, extinction and renewal in male and female rats

Grizzell,

Vanbaelinghem,

Westerman

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Alcohol use during adolescence coincides with elevated risks of stress-related impairment in adults, particularly via disrupted developmental trajectories of vulnerable corticolimbic and mesolimbic systems involved in fear processing. Prior work has investigated the impact of binge-like alcohol consumption on adult fear and stress, but less is known about whether voluntarily consumed alcohol imparts differential effects based on adolescence phases and biological sex. Here, adolescent male and female Long Evans rats were granted daily access to alcohol (15%) during either early (Early-EtOH; P25-45) or late adolescence (Late-EtOH; P45-55) using a modified drinking-in-the-dark design. Upon adulthood (P75-80), rats were exposed to a three-context (ABC) fear renewal procedure. We found that male and female Early-EtOH rats showed faster acquisition of fear but less freezing during early phases of extinction and throughout fear renewal. In the extinction period specifically, Early-EtOH rats showed normal levels of freezing in the presence of fear-associated cues, but abnormally low freezing immediately after cue offset, suggesting a key disruption in contextual processing and/or novelty seeking brought by early adolescent binge consumption. While the effects of alcohol were most pronounced in the Early-EtOH rats (particularly in females), Late-EtOH rats displayed some changes in fear behavior including slower fear acquisition, faster extinction, and reduced renewal compared with controls, but primarily in males. Our results suggest that early adolescence in males and females and, to a lesser extent, late adolescence in males is a particularly vulnerable period wherein alcohol use can promote stress-related dysfunction in adulthood. Furthermore, our results provide multiple bases for future research focused on developmental correlates of alcohol mediated disruption in the brain.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Voluntary alcohol consumption during distinct phases of adolescence differentially alters adult fear acquisition, extinction and renewal in male and female rats

Grizzell,

Vanbaelinghem,

Westerman

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Although adolescent male rats are generally described as having higher social interest relative to female rats, such a sex difference in a social conditioned place preference depended on housing conditions (Douglas et al., 2004). Further, the extent of sex differences in social play in adolescent rats depend on test conditions and on strain of rat (McCormick, 2021; Northcutt & Nwankwo, 2018). An additional consideration is that the rats in our studies were offspring of dams shipped to the institution midgestation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Puberty onset was determined by monitoring for physical markers, vaginal opening in female rats, and balanopreputial separation in male rats (Hoffman, 2018; McCormick, 2021; Yamasaki et al., 2001). Female rats were examined daily from P29 until onset occurred, and male rats were examined daily from P35 until onset occurred.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developmental trajectory of social reward motivation from early adolescence into adulthood in female and male Long‐Evans rats

Murray,

Logan,

Sheehan

et al. 2024

Developmental Psychobiology

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Most studies of adolescent and adult behavior involved one age group of each, whereas the dynamic changes in brain development suggest that there may be behavioral flux in adolescence. In two studies, we investigated developmental changes in social reward motivation in female and male Long‐Evans rats from prepuberty to early adulthood in a social operant conditioning task. Given the earlier onset of puberty in females than in males, we predicted the course of social reward development would differ between the sexes. Overall, the pattern of results from both studies suggests that the trajectory of social motivation across adolescence is characterized by upward and downward shifts that do not depend on the sex of the rats. During training, in both studies, the mean number of social gate openings and percentage of social gate openings was higher at P30 (prepubertal, early adolescence) and P50 (late adolescence) than at P40 (mid adolescence) and P70 (adulthood) irrespective of sex. Nevertheless, the specific age comparisons that were significant depended on the study. In both studies, P30 rats had greater levels of social motivation than did adults in accessing a social reward when increased effort was required (progressive ratio tests). In an extinction test, only P30 and P50 rats continued to show more nose‐pokes at the previously social gate than at the nonsocial gate, suggesting resistance to extinction. The results highlight the importance of characterizing behavior at several timepoints in adolescence to understand the neural mechanisms, many of which show similar discontinuities as they develop across adolescence.

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Mean Girls: Social Stress Models for Female Rodents

Kuske

Trainor

2021

Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences

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Methods and Challenges in Investigating Sex-Specific Consequences of Social Stressors in Adolescence in Rats: Is It the Stress or the Social or the Stage of Development?

Cited by 5 publications

References 215 publications

Voluntary alcohol consumption during distinct phases of adolescence differentially alters adult fear acquisition, extinction and renewal in male and female rats

Voluntary alcohol consumption during distinct phases of adolescence differentially alters adult fear acquisition, extinction and renewal in male and female rats

Developmental trajectory of social reward motivation from early adolescence into adulthood in female and male Long‐Evans rats

Mean Girls: Social Stress Models for Female Rodents

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