title: Developmental regulation of fear learning and anxiety behavior by endocannabinoids.
abstract: The developing brain undergoes substantial maturation into adulthood and the development of specific neural structures occurs on differing timelines. Transient imbalances between developmental trajectories of corticolimbic structures, which are known to contribute to regulation over fear learning and anxiety, can leave an individual susceptible to mental illness, particularly anxiety disorders. There is a substantial body of literature indicating that the endocannabinoid (eCB) system critically regulates stress responsivity and emotional behavior throughout the life span, making this system a novel therapeutic target for stress- and anxiety-related disorders. During early life and adolescence, corticolimbic eCB signaling changes dynamically and coincides with different sensitive periods of fear learning, suggesting that eCB signaling underlies age-specific fear learning responses. Moreover, perturbations to these normative fluctuations in corticolimbic eCB signaling, such as stress or cannabinoid exposure, could serve as a neural substrate contributing to alterations to the normative developmental trajectory of neural structures governing emotional behavior and fear learning. In this review, we first introduce the components of the eCB system and discuss clinical and rodent models showing eCB regulation of fear learning and anxiety in adulthood. Next, we highlight distinct fear learning and regulation profiles throughout development and discuss the ontogeny of the eCB system in the central nervous system, and models of pharmacological augmentation of eCB signaling during development in the context of fear learning and anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, USA.
authors.forename: T T-Y
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.|Mathison Center for Mental Health Research and Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.|Department of Cell Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.|Department of Anatomy & Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.|Department of Pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.|Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D063388:Endocannabinoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D005239:Fear; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D055495:Neurogenesis
chemical_list: D063388:Endocannabinoids
keywords: 2-AG; CB1 receptor; FAAH; adolescence; anandamide; cannabinoid; development; early life; emotional behavior; juvenile; neonatal; stress