Behavioral and neural correlates of diverse conditioned fear responses in male and female rats.

Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used tool that models associative learning in rodents. For decades the field has used predominantly male rodents and focused on a sole conditioned fear response: freezing. However, recent work from our lab and others has identified darting as a female-biased conditioned response, characterized by an escape-like movement across a fear conditioning chamber.

CB1R blockade unmasks TRPV1-mediated contextual fear generalization in female, but not male rats.

Increasing evidence suggests that the neurobiological processes that govern learning and memory can be different in males and females, but many of the specific mechanisms underlying these sex differences have not been fully defined. Here we investigated potential sex differences in endocannabinoid (eCB) modulation of Pavlovian fear conditioning and extinction, examining multiple defensive behaviors, including shock responsivity, conditioned freezing, and conditioned darting. We found that while systemic administration of drugs acting on eCB receptors did not influence the occurrence of darting, females that were classified as Darters responded differently to the drug administration than those classified as Non-darters.

CB1R blockade unmasks TRPV1-mediated contextual fear generalization in female, but not male rats.

Increasing evidence suggests that the neurobiological processes that govern learning and memory can be different in males and females, and here we asked specifically whether the endocannabinoid (eCB) system could modulate Pavlovian fear conditioning in a sex-dependent manner. Systemic (i.p.

Sounding the Alarm: Sex Differences in Rat Ultrasonic Vocalizations during Pavlovian Fear Conditioning and Extinction.

Pavlovian fear conditioning is a prevalent tool in the study of aversive learning, which is a key component of stress-related psychiatric disorders. Adult rats can exhibit various threat-related behaviors, including freezing, motor responses, and ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs). While these responses can all signal aversion, we know little about how they relate to one another.

Darting across space and time: parametric modulators of sex-biased conditioned fear responses.

Pavlovian fear conditioning is a widely used behavioral paradigm for studying associative learning in rodents. Despite early recognition that subjects may engage in a variety of both conditioned and unconditioned responses, the last several decades have seen the field narrow its focus to measure freezing as the sole indicator of conditioned fear. We previously reported that female rats were more likely than males to engage in darting, an escape-like conditioned response that is associated with heightened shock reactivity.

Multi-omics analysis identifies mitochondrial pathways associated with anxiety-related behavior.

Stressful life events are major environmental risk factors for anxiety disorders, although not all individuals exposed to stress develop clinical anxiety. The molecular mechanisms underlying the influence of environmental effects on anxiety are largely unknown. To identify biological pathways mediating stress-related anxiety and resilience to it, we used the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) paradigm in male mice of two inbred strains, C57BL/6NCrl (B6) and DBA/2NCrl (D2), that differ in their susceptibility to stress.

Genetic Control of Myelin Plasticity after Chronic Psychosocial Stress.

Anxiety disorders often manifest in genetically susceptible individuals after psychosocial stress, but the mechanisms underlying these gene-environment interactions are largely unknown. We used the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) mouse model to study resilience and susceptibility to chronic psychosocial stress. We identified a strong genetic background effect in CSDS-induced social avoidance (SA) using four inbred mouse strains: 69% of C57BL/6NCrl (B6), 23% of BALB/cAnNCrl, 19% of 129S2/SvPasCrl, and 5% of DBA/2NCrl (D2) mice were stress resilient.

Brain activation induced by chronic psychosocial stress in mice.

Chronic psychosocial stress is a well-established risk factor for neuropsychiatric diseases. Abnormalities in brain activity have been demonstrated in patients with stress-related disorders. Global brain activation patterns during chronic stress exposure are less well understood but may have strong modifying effects on specific brain circuits and thereby influence development of stress-related pathologies.