Effective coping strategies and adaptive behavioral training build resilience against stress-induced pathology. Both predisposed and acquired coping strategies were investigated in rats to determine their impact on stress responsiveness and emotional resilience. Male Long-Evans rats were assigned to one of the three coping groups: passive, active, or variable copers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaternal behavior greatly affects the survival, social development, and cognitive development of infants. Nevertheless, little research has been done to assess how paternal experience modifies the behavioral characteristics of fathers, including fear and stress responses to a novel environment. We investigated long-term behavioral and physiologic effects of parental experience in mice (Peromyscus californicus) and how this response activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (as measured by corticosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA] levels) and interacts with anxiety-related behaviors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRodent paternal models provide unique opportunities to investigate the emergence of affiliative social behavior in mammals. Using biparental and uniparental Peromyscus species (californicus and maniculatus, respectively) we assessed paternal responsiveness by exposing males to biological offspring, unrelated conspecific pups, or familiar brothers following a 24-hour separation. The putative paternal circuit we investigated included brain areas involved in fear/anxiety [cingulate cortex (Cg), medial amygdala (MeA), paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), and lateral septum (LS)], parental motivation [medial preoptic area (MPOA)], learning/behavioral plasticity (hippocampus), olfaction [pyriform cortex (PC)], and social rewards (nucleus accumbens).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvidence suggests that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) plays a key role in stress and coping responses. Fecal sampling permits assessment of hormone-behavior interactions reliably and effectively, but no previous study has compared circadian- or stress-dependent alterations between serum DHEA and its fecal metabolites. In the current study, young (28 d of age) male rats were assigned to either an experimental (n = 6) or control (n = 6) group.
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