Early life social stress has long-term impact on brain networks in rats
A team led by Benjamin Nephew, assistant professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, studied adult female rats exposed to early life chronic social stress (ECSS). Using an ECSS model that was established in Nephew's previous research on postpartum depression and anxiety, the female rats in the test group were exposed to social stress in their first two weeks of life as pups, while the control group was not exposed to social stress. Previous studies looking at animal models of depression and anxiety have focused primarily on males. The current research can provide important insight into the development of these psychiatric disorders in females. When the rats reached adulthood (65-90 days old), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was administered to measure resting state functional connectivity -- the fluctuation in activity in different regions of the brain. Analysis of the imaging from the ECSS group showed broad changes in activity in ar...