Altered neural connectivity in adult female rats exposed to early life social stress.
The use of a variety of neuroanatomical techniques has led to a greater understanding of the adverse effects of stress on psychiatric health. One recent advance that has been particularly valuable is the development of resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in clinical studies. The current study investigates changes in RSFC in F1 adult female rats exposed to the early life chronic social stress (ECSS) of the daily introduction of a novel male intruder to the cage of their F0 mothers while the F1 pups are in the cage. This ECSS for the F1 animals consists of depressed maternal care from their F0 mothers and exposure to conflict between their F0 mothers and intruder males. Analyses of the functional connectivity data in ECSS exposed adult females versus control females reveal broad changes in the limbic and reward systems, the salience and introspective socioaffective networks, and several additional stress and social behavior associated nuclei. Substantial changes in connectivity were found in the prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, and somatosensory cortex. The current rodent RSFC data support the hypothesis that the exposure to early life social stress has long term effects on neural connectivity in numerous social behavior, stress, and depression relevant brain nuclei. Future conscious rodent RSFC studies can build on the wealth of data generated from previous neuroanatomical studies of early life stress and enhance translational connectivity between animal and human fMRI studies in the development of novel preventative measures and treatments.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Peabody Pavilion, North Grafton, MA, 01536, United States. Electronic address: bcnephew@aol.com.
Benjamin C
BC
Nephew
Center for Comparative NeuroImaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA, 01655, United States.
Wei
W
Huang
Center for Comparative NeuroImaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA, 01655, United States.
Guillaume L
GL
Poirier
Center for Comparative NeuroImaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA, 01655, United States.
Laurellee
L
Payne
Center for Comparative NeuroImaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA, 01655, United States.
Jean A
JA
King
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012146:Rest; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*
Hippocampus; Nucleus accumbens; Prefrontal cortex; Resting state functional connectivity; Social stress; fMRI