Whereas genetic factors contribute crucially to brain function, early-life events, including stress, exert long-lasting influence on neuronal function. Here, we focus on the hippocampus as the target of these early-life events because of its crucial role in learning and memory. Using a novel immaturerodent model, we describe the deleterious consequences of chronic early-life 'psychological' stress on hippocampus-dependent cognitive tasks. We review the cellular mechanisms involved and discuss the roles of stress-mediating molecules, including corticotropin releasing hormone, in the process by which stress impacts the structure and function of hippocampal neurons.
KeywordsNeonatal; Rat; Human; Stress; Memory; Hippocampus; Corticotropin releasing hormone; CRF; Hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis; Neuroplasticity
Early-life events interact with genetic factors to influence hippocampal function long-termBrain function and dysfunction throughout life are determined by the interaction of genetic factors with 'acquired' environmental events, signals and stimuli [100]. Events that occur early in life are capable of exerting effects that persist throughout adulthood. Here, we focus on the hippocampus as the target of these early-life events because of its crucial role in learning, memory storage and retrieval, and general cognitive function [105,41,65]. Indeed, early-life events, via complex interactions with genetic factors [106,120], have been suspected to be a major determinant of smaller hippocampal volume and long-term cognitive dysfunction in preterm infants [111,17] and may play a role in certain affective and dementing disorders in the adult and aging human [100,26,120]. This review focuses on the mechanisms by which certain early-life events influence populations of hippocampal neurons acutely, and impact the function and integrity of the hippocampus long-term.
Studying early-life stress may be used to probe the molecular mechanisms involved in experience-evoked hippocampal neuroplasticityStress may provide a salient example of early-life experience that might exert long-lasting influence on the brain, because (1) over 50% of the world's children are exposed to stress [139] and (2) evidence from both human and animal studies suggests that early-life stress has profound effects on cognitive function and emotional health.Stress has been shown to influence the hippocampus in a number of important ways. Whereas acute mild stress rapidly enhances synaptic efficacy and learning and memory processes [131,45,91,123], chronic or severe activation of the stress response early in life has been shown to be potentially injurious in both humans [6,120,147] and experimental animals [120,31]. For example, severe childhood psychological stress (neglect and abuse) correlates with a higher incidence of learning disabilities later in life, including those learning and memory functions requiring an intact hippocampus [121,50]. Further, MRI studies have suggested that adults subjected to abuse (a measure of chronic stress) ...