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The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress

Women are nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), indicating that many females are especially vulnerable to stressful life experience. A profound sex difference in the response to stress is also observed in laboratory animals. Acute exposure to...

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Autores principales: Maeng, Lisa Y., Shors, Tracey J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3868707/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24391548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2013.00198
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author Maeng, Lisa Y.
Shors, Tracey J.
author_facet Maeng, Lisa Y.
Shors, Tracey J.
author_sort Maeng, Lisa Y.
collection PubMed
description Women are nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), indicating that many females are especially vulnerable to stressful life experience. A profound sex difference in the response to stress is also observed in laboratory animals. Acute exposure to an uncontrollable stressful event disrupts associative learning during classical eyeblink conditioning in female rats but enhances this same type of learning process in males. These sex differences in response to stress are dependent on neuronal activity in similar but also different brain regions. Neuronal activity in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) is necessary in both males and females. However, neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during the stressor is necessary to modify learning in females but not in males. The mPFC is often divided into its prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) subregions, which differ both in structure and function. Through its connections to the BLA, we hypothesized that neuronal activity within the PL, but not IL, during the stressor is necessary to suppress learning in females. To test this hypothesis, either the PL or IL of adult female rats was bilaterally inactivated with GABA(A) agonist muscimol during acute inescapable swim stress. About 24 h later, all subjects were trained with classical eyeblink conditioning. Though stressed, females without neuronal activity in the PL learned well. In contrast, females with IL inactivation during the stressor did not learn well, behaving similarly to stressed vehicle-treated females. These data suggest that exposure to a stressful event critically engages the PL, but not IL, to disrupt associative learning in females. Together with previous studies, these data indicate that the PL communicates with the BLA to suppress learning after a stressful experience in females. This circuit may be similarly engaged in women who become cognitively impaired after stressful life events.
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spelling pubmed-38687072014-01-03 The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress Maeng, Lisa Y. Shors, Tracey J. Front Neural Circuits Neuroscience Women are nearly twice as likely as men to suffer from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), indicating that many females are especially vulnerable to stressful life experience. A profound sex difference in the response to stress is also observed in laboratory animals. Acute exposure to an uncontrollable stressful event disrupts associative learning during classical eyeblink conditioning in female rats but enhances this same type of learning process in males. These sex differences in response to stress are dependent on neuronal activity in similar but also different brain regions. Neuronal activity in the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala (BLA) is necessary in both males and females. However, neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during the stressor is necessary to modify learning in females but not in males. The mPFC is often divided into its prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) subregions, which differ both in structure and function. Through its connections to the BLA, we hypothesized that neuronal activity within the PL, but not IL, during the stressor is necessary to suppress learning in females. To test this hypothesis, either the PL or IL of adult female rats was bilaterally inactivated with GABA(A) agonist muscimol during acute inescapable swim stress. About 24 h later, all subjects were trained with classical eyeblink conditioning. Though stressed, females without neuronal activity in the PL learned well. In contrast, females with IL inactivation during the stressor did not learn well, behaving similarly to stressed vehicle-treated females. These data suggest that exposure to a stressful event critically engages the PL, but not IL, to disrupt associative learning in females. Together with previous studies, these data indicate that the PL communicates with the BLA to suppress learning after a stressful experience in females. This circuit may be similarly engaged in women who become cognitively impaired after stressful life events. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-12-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3868707/ /pubmed/24391548 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2013.00198 Text en Copyright © 2013 Maeng and Shors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Maeng, Lisa Y.
Shors, Tracey J.
The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title_full The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title_fullStr The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title_full_unstemmed The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title_short The stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
title_sort stressed female brain: neuronal activity in the prelimbic but not infralimbic region of the medial prefrontal cortex suppresses learning after acute stress
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3868707/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24391548
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2013.00198
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