Early life stress-induced alterations in the activity and morphology of ventral tegmental area neurons in female rats.

ABSTRACT: Childhood maltreatment, which can take the form of physical or psychological abuse, is experienced by more than a quarter of all children. Early life stress has substantial and long-term consequences, including an increased risk of drug abuse and psychiatric disorders in adolescence and adulthood, and this risk is higher in women than in men. The neuronal mechanisms underlying the influence of early life adversities on brain functioning remain poorly understood; therefore, in the current study, we used maternal separation (MS), a rodent model of early-life neglect, to verify its influence on the properties of neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a brain area critically involved in reward and motivation processing. Using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings in brain slices from adolesc

SUBMITTER: Spyrka J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7739067 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature