Sex differences in long-term fear and anxiety-like responses to deep brain stimulation in a preclinical model of PTSD.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is currently being investigated in patients and preclinical models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but differences in behaviour according to sex remain elusive. We exposed female and male rats to fear conditioning and extinction. Thereafter, animals were treated with ventromedial prefrontal cortex DBS, followed by a battery of tests to measure fear and anxiety-like behaviour.