Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females

Adverse experiences during childhood are associated with the development of psychiatric disorders later in life. In particular, childhood abuse and neglect are risk factors for addictive disorders, such as substance misuse and pathological gambling. Impulsivity and compulsivity are key features of t...

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Main Authors:	Brydges, Nichola M., Holmes, Megan C., Harris, Anjanette P., Cardinal, Rudolf N., Hall, Jeremy
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	American Psychological Association 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4450884/

id	pubmed-4450884
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-44508842015-06-11 Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females Brydges, Nichola M. Holmes, Megan C. Harris, Anjanette P. Cardinal, Rudolf N. Hall, Jeremy Articles Adverse experiences during childhood are associated with the development of psychiatric disorders later in life. In particular, childhood abuse and neglect are risk factors for addictive disorders, such as substance misuse and pathological gambling. Impulsivity and compulsivity are key features of these disorders. Therefore, we investigated whether childhood adversity might increase vulnerability for addictive disorders through promotion of compulsive and impulsive behaviors. Rats were exposed to a brief, variable childhood or prepubertal stress protocol (Postnatal Days 25–27), and their behavior in a delay discounting task was compared with that of control animals in adulthood. Prepubertal stress produced compulsive-type behavior in females. Specifically, stressed females displayed inappropriate responses during a choice phase of the task, perseverating with nosepoke responding instead of choosing between 2 levers. Stressed females also showed learning impairments during task training. However, prepubertal stress was not associated with the development of impulsive behavior, as rates of delay discounting were not affected in either sex. Childhood adversity may contribute to the establishment and maintenance of addictive disorders by increasing perseveration in females. Perseverative behavior may therefore provide a viable therapeutic target for preventing the development of addictive disorders in individuals exposed to childhood adversity. These effects were not seen in males, highlighting sex differences in response to early life stress. American Psychological Association 2015-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4450884/ /pubmed/26030429 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bne0000059 Text en © 2015 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Brydges, Nichola M. Holmes, Megan C. Harris, Anjanette P. Cardinal, Rudolf N. Hall, Jeremy
spellingShingle	Brydges, Nichola M. Holmes, Megan C. Harris, Anjanette P. Cardinal, Rudolf N. Hall, Jeremy Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
author_facet	Brydges, Nichola M. Holmes, Megan C. Harris, Anjanette P. Cardinal, Rudolf N. Hall, Jeremy
author_sort	Brydges, Nichola M.
title	Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
title_short	Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
title_full	Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
title_fullStr	Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
title_full_unstemmed	Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females
title_sort	early life stress produces compulsive-like, but not impulsive, behavior in females
description	Adverse experiences during childhood are associated with the development of psychiatric disorders later in life. In particular, childhood abuse and neglect are risk factors for addictive disorders, such as substance misuse and pathological gambling. Impulsivity and compulsivity are key features of these disorders. Therefore, we investigated whether childhood adversity might increase vulnerability for addictive disorders through promotion of compulsive and impulsive behaviors. Rats were exposed to a brief, variable childhood or prepubertal stress protocol (Postnatal Days 25–27), and their behavior in a delay discounting task was compared with that of control animals in adulthood. Prepubertal stress produced compulsive-type behavior in females. Specifically, stressed females displayed inappropriate responses during a choice phase of the task, perseverating with nosepoke responding instead of choosing between 2 levers. Stressed females also showed learning impairments during task training. However, prepubertal stress was not associated with the development of impulsive behavior, as rates of delay discounting were not affected in either sex. Childhood adversity may contribute to the establishment and maintenance of addictive disorders by increasing perseveration in females. Perseverative behavior may therefore provide a viable therapeutic target for preventing the development of addictive disorders in individuals exposed to childhood adversity. These effects were not seen in males, highlighting sex differences in response to early life stress.
publisher	American Psychological Association
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4450884/
_version_	1613230128350887936

Early Life Stress Produces Compulsive-Like, but Not Impulsive, Behavior in Females

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