Anxiety, aggression, reward sensitivity, and forebrain dopamine receptor expression in a laboratory rat model of early-life disadvantage.

Despite early-life disadvantage (ELD) in humans being a highly heterogenous construct, it consistently predicts negative neurobehavioral outcomes. The numerous environmental contributors and neural mechanisms underlying ELD remain unclear, though. We used a laboratory rat model to evaluate the effects of limited resources and/or heavy metal exposure on mothers and their adult male and female offspring.

Influence of reconsolidation in maintenance of cocaine-associated contextual memories formed during adolescence or adulthood.

Adolescents are at increased risk to develop substance use disorders and suffer from relapse throughout life. Targeted weakening of drug-associated memories has been shown to reduce relapse-like behavior in adult rats, however this process has been understudied in adolescents. We aimed to examine whether adolescent-formed, cocaine-associated memories could be manipulated via reconsolidation mechanisms.

Context-drug-associations and reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior in male rats: Adolescent and adult time-dependent effects.

Rationale: Drug use during adolescence results in a life-long risk to develop substance-use disorders. Adolescent rats are sensitive to different drug-associated cues, compared to adults; however, the contribution of adolescent-formed context-drug-associations to elicit relapse-like behavior is underexplored.

Objectives: The present study compared the effect of adolescent vs adult-formed context-drug associations to elicit time-dependent increases in cocaine-seeking behavior.

Correction to: Role of adolescent-formed, context-drug-associations on reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior in rats.

The authors have noted an error in Fig. 1B and Fig. 1C.

Role of adolescent-formed, context-drug-associations on reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior in rats.

Rationale: Drug use during adolescence results in a lifelong risk to develop substance-use disorders. Adolescent rats are less reactive to cocaine-associated cues compared with adults; however, the contribution of adolescent-formed, context-drug-associations to elicit relapse-like behavior is underexplored. Although it is known that social isolation can impact drug-seeking behavior, the effects of housing conditions on context-induced, cocaine-seeking during adolescence vs adulthood are unknown.

Neuronal activation in orbitofrontal cortex subregions: Cfos expression following cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking behavior.

Cocaine-use disorders are characterized by repeated relapse to drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior following periods of abstinence. Former drug users display increased activation of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in response to drug-related cues, and similar phenomena are also observed in rodent models of drug relapse. The lateral, but not medial, OFC functionally contributes to the maintenance of cue-drug associations; however, less is known about the role of the ventral OFC in this process.