Age- and sex-specific effects of maternal separation on the acoustic startle reflex in rats: early baseline enhancement in females and blunted response to ambiguous threat.

ABSTRACT: Early life adversity (ELA) increases the incidence of later-life anxiety disorders. Dysregulated threat processing, including responsivity to ambiguous threats, is an indicator of anxiety disorders and can be influenced by childhood experiences. The acoustic startle response is a defensive reflex displayed by mammals when exposed to sudden intense stimuli reflecting individual variations in vigilance. These measures can be altered by previous experience and experimental modifications, including the introduction of unconditioned aversive stimuli. Rats emit ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in the 22 KHz range in negative contexts. As such, 22 KHz USVs are an ethologically relevant social cue of environmental threat shown to induce anxiety-like behavior in recipient rats. Because the timing of

SUBMITTER: Granata L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9643533 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature