Gating of the neuroendocrine stress responses by stressor salience in early lactating female rats is independent of infralimbic cortex activation and plasticity.

In early lactation (EL), stressor salience modulates neuroendocrine stress responses, but it is unclear whether this persists throughout lactation and which neural structures are implicated. We hypothesized that this process is specific to EL and that the infralimbic (IL) medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) might provide a critical link between assessment of threat and activation of the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in EL. We measured neuroendocrine responses and neuronal Fos induction to a salient (predator odor) or non-salient (tail pinch) psychogenic stressor in EL and late lactation (LL) females.