Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction Increases Susceptibility to Schizophrenia-Like Changes Induced by Adolescent Stress Exposure.

ABSTRACT: Stress during adolescence is a risk factor for schizophrenia, and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction is proposed to interfere with stress control, increasing the susceptibility to stress. We evaluated the impact of different stressful events during adolescence (restraint stress [RS], footshock [FS], or the combination of FS and RS) on behaviors correlated with schizophrenia in rats as adults. At adulthood, animals were tested for anxiety responses (elevated plus-maze), cognitive function (novel-object recognition test) and dopamine (DA) system responsivity (locomotor response to amphetamine and DA neuron activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) using in vivo electrophysiology). All adolescent stressors impaired weight gain and induced anxiety-like responses in adults. FS and F

SUBMITTER: Gomes FV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5464092 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature