Sex differences in behavioral and neural responses induced by witnessing social defeat stress during adolescence or adulthood in mice.

Psychosocial stress can lead to emotional disorders and memory-related cognitive impairments. Evidence suggests that stress effects vary with age and sex, involving brain structures such as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), amygdala, and hippocampus. This study hypothesized that witnessing social defeat stress (WSDS) during adolescence or adulthood would produce anxiety- and depression-like behaviors and cognitive deficits in adulthood, with outcomes affected by sex.