Impacts of stress on reproductive and social behaviors.

Impacts of steroid stress hormones on the brain have provided multiple opportunities for linking specific molecular phenomena to behavioral state. The negative impacts of stress on female reproductive biological processes have been documented thoroughly at the endocrine and behavioral levels. More recently, a '3-hit' theory of autism has identified early stress as one of the hits. The multiple biochemical effects of endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide, LPS) indicated that it would serve as a powerful maternal immune activator. The prenatal exposure to LPS coupled with the other two 'hits'- an autism-related mutation and the Y chromosome - - heightened certain autism-like signs in mouse behavior.