Early Life Social Stress

Early Life Social Stress Has Long Term Impact on Brain Networks: Rat Study

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSDECEMBER 19, 2016Summary: Findings about how early life social stress affect brain connections in mice may have implications for treating human psychiatric illnesses.

Adult female rats exposed to early life social stress show significant decrease in coordinated neural activity in regions and networks

associated with control of social behavior, stress and depression/anxiety behaviors. (Spheres represent strength of neural activity
at rest and lines depict coordinated activity between connected spheres.) NeuroscienceNews.com image is credited to
Marcelo Febo/University of Florida.

Source: Tufts University.

Changes in connectivity in regions of the brain tied to social behavior, stress and depression can inform research on related psychiatric disorders in humans.

Investigators in veterinary and human medicine have uncovered long-term changes in the brains of adult female rats exposed to social stresses early in life, with the biggest impact on regions of the brain that are linked to social behavior, stress, emotion and depression. The findings, which appear online in advance of the January 2017 print edition of Behavioural Brain Research, establish a neural foundation for related imaging work in humans and animals and will enable researchers to begin testing preventative measures and treatments for depression and anxiety./.../