Peripuberty stress leads to abnormal aggression, altered amygdala and orbitofrontal reactivity and increased prefrontal MAOA gene expression.

ABSTRACT: Although adverse early life experiences have been found to increase lifetime risk to develop violent behaviors, the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these long-term effects remain unclear. We present a novel animal model for pathological aggression induced by peripubertal exposure to stress with face, construct and predictive validity. We show that male rats submitted to fear-induction experiences during the peripubertal period exhibit high and sustained rates of increased aggression at adulthood, even against unthreatening individuals, and increased testosterone/corticosterone ratio. They also exhibit hyperactivity in the amygdala under both basal conditions (evaluated by 2-deoxy-glucose autoradiography) and after a resident-intruder (RI) test (evaluated by c-Fos immunohistochemistry

SUBMITTER: Marquez C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3566724 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature