Department of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2011 Jul;36(6):843-53. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.11.007. Epub 2010 Dec 23.
Early life stress poses a risk for the development of psychopathologies characterized by disturbed emotional, social, and cognitive performance. We used maternal separation (MS, 3h daily, postnatal days 1-14) to test whether early life stress impairs social recognition performance in juvenile (5-week-old) and adult (16-week-old) male Wistar rats. Social recognition was tested in the social discrimination test and defined by increased investigation by the experimental rat towards a novel rat compared with a previously encountered rat. Juvenile control and MS rats demonstrated successful social recognition at inter-exposure intervals of 30 and 60 min. However, unlike adult control rats, adult MS rats failed to discriminate between a previously encountered and a novel rat after 60 min. The social recognition impairment of adult MS rats was accompanied by a lack of a rise in arginine vasopressin (AVP) release within the lateral septum seen during social memory acquisition in adult control rats. This blunted response of septal AVP release was social stimulus-specific because forced swimming induced a rise in septal AVP release in both control and MS rats. Retrodialysis of AVP (1 μg/ml, 3.3 μl/min, 30 min) into the lateral septum during social memory acquisition restored social recognition in adult MS rats at the 60-min interval. These studies demonstrate that MS impairs social recognition performance in adult rats, which is likely caused by blunted septal AVP activation. Impaired social recognition may be linked to MS-induced changes in other social behaviors like aggression as shown previously.
早期生活压力会增加出现以情绪、社交和认知功能障碍为特征的精神病理疾病的风险。我们采用母婴分离（MS，每天 3 小时，产后第 1-14 天）的方法，来测试早期生活压力是否会损害幼年（5 周龄）和成年（16 周龄）雄性 Wistar 大鼠的社会识别能力。在社会辨别测试中检测社会识别能力，定义为实验大鼠相对于之前遇到的大鼠，对新大鼠的探索增加。幼年对照组和 MS 组大鼠在 30 分钟和 60 分钟的暴露间隔下，表现出成功的社会识别。然而，与成年对照组大鼠不同，成年 MS 组大鼠在 60 分钟后无法区分之前遇到的大鼠和新大鼠。成年 MS 组大鼠的社会识别障碍伴随着外侧隔室中精氨酸加压素（AVP）释放的缺乏，而这种缺乏在成年对照组大鼠的社会记忆获得过程中是不存在的。这种 AVP 释放的迟钝反应是社会刺激特异性的，因为强迫游泳会引起对照组和 MS 组大鼠的隔室 AVP 释放增加。在社会记忆获得过程中，将 AVP（1μg/ml，3.3μl/min，30min）逆行透析到外侧隔室中，恢复了成年 MS 组大鼠在 60 分钟间隔的社会识别能力。这些研究表明，MS 会损害成年大鼠的社会识别能力，这可能是由于外侧隔室 AVP 激活的迟钝所致。受损的社会识别能力可能与 MS 诱导的其他社会行为改变有关，如之前显示的攻击性。
