Insular cortex modulates social avoidance of sick rats.

Avoidance of sick individuals is vital to the preservation of one's health and preventing transmission of communicable diseases. To do this successfully, one must identify social cues for sickness, which include sickness behaviors and chemosignals, and use this information to orchestrate social interactions. While many social species are highly capable with this process, the neural mechanisms that provide for social responses to sick individuals are only partially understood.

Oestrogen and androgen receptor activation contribute to the masculinisation of oxytocin receptors in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis of rats.

Oxytocin (OT) often regulates social behaviours in sex-specific ways, and this may be a result of sex differences in the brain OT system. Adult male rats show higher OT receptor (OTR) binding in the posterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (pBNST) than adult female rats. In the present study, we investigated the mechanisms that lead to this sex difference.

Prefrontal endocannabinoids, stress controllability and resilience: A hypothesis.

Stressor exposure is a predisposing risk factor for many psychiatric conditions such as PTSD and depression. However, stressors do not influence all individuals equally and in response to an identical stressor some individuals may be vulnerable while others are resilient. While various biological and behavioral factors contribute to vulnerability versus resilience, an individual's degree of control over the stressor is among the most potent.