Abstract
Background
Postweaning is a critical developmental stage during which the medial prefrontal cortex
(mPFC) undergoes major changes and the brain is vulnerable to the effects of stress.
Surprisingly, the engagement of the mPFC in extinction of fear was reported to be
identical in postweanling (PW) and adult animals. Here, we examined whether the effect
of stress on extinction and mPFC plasticity would be similar in PW and adult animals.
Methods
PW and adult animals were fear conditioned and exposed to the elevated platform stress
paradigm, and extinction and long-term potentiation were examined. The dependency
of stress-induced modulation of extinction and plasticity on N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors was examined as well.
Results
We show that exposure to stress is associated with reduction of fear and enhanced
induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in PW pups, in contrast to its effects in
adult animals. Furthermore, we report opposite effects in the occlusion of LTP following
the enhanced or impaired extinction in the two age groups and that the reversal of
the effects of stress is independent of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activation in PW animals.
Conclusions
Our results show that qualitatively different mechanisms control the modulatory effects
of stress on extinction and plasticity in postweanling pups compared with adult rats.
Our results point to significant differences between young and adult brains, which
may have potential implications for the treatment of anxiety and stress disorders
across development.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 22, 2014
Accepted:
October 7,
2014
Received in revised form:
September 10,
2014
Received:
May 22,
2014
Identification
Copyright
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