Daily maternal separations during stress hyporesponsive period decrease the thresholds of panic-like behaviors to electrical stimulation of the dorsal periaqueductal gray of the adult rat

Behavioural Brain Research
Ana Cristina Borges-AguiarLuiz C Schenberg

Abstract

The present study examined whether early life maternal separation (MS), a model of childhood separation anxiety, predisposes to panic at adulthood. For this purpose, male pups were submitted to 3-h daily maternal separations along postnatal (PN) days of either the 'stress hyporesponsive period' (SHRP) from PN4 to PN14 (MS11) or throughout lactation from PN2 to PN21 (MS20). Pups were further reunited to conscious (CM) or anesthetized (AM) mothers to assess the effect of mother-pup interaction upon reunion. Controls were subjected to brief handling (15 s) once a day throughout lactation (BH20). As adults (PN60), rats were tested for the thresholds to evoke panic-like behaviors upon electrical stimulation of dorsal periaqueductal gray matter and exposed to an elevated plus-maze, an open-field, a forced swim and a sucrose preference test. A factor analysis was also performed to gain insight into the meaning of behavioral tests. MS11-CM rather than MS20-CM rats showed enhanced panic responses and reductions in both swimming and sucrose preference. Panic facilitations were less intense in mother-neglected rats. Although MS did not affect anxiety, MS11-AM showed robust reductions of defecation in an open-field. Factor analysis singled...Continue Reading

Citations

Apr 6, 2021·Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology·Emily T StonehamTheodore C Dumas
May 18, 2021·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Anna Holubová-Kroupová, Romana Šlamberová

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