Chronic psychosocial stress and experimental pubertal delay affect socioemotional behavior and amygdala functional connectivity in adolescent female rhesus macaques.

ABSTRACT: In females, pubertal onset appears to signal the opening of a window of increased vulnerability to the effects of stress on neurobehavioral development. What is the impact of pubertal timing on this process? We assessed the effects of pubertal timing and stress on behavior and amygdala functional connectivity (FC) in adolescent female macaques, whose social hierarchy provides an ethologically valid model of chronic psychosocial stress. Monkeys experienced puberty spontaneously (n = 34) or pubertal delay via Lupron treatment from age 16-33 months (n = 36). We examined the effects of stress (continuous dimension spanning dominant/low-stress to subordinate/high-stress) and experimental pubertal delay (Lupron-treated vs. Control) on socioemotional behavior and FC at 43-46 months, after all ani

SUBMITTER: Pincus M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11578542 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature