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Adolescence as a Unique Period of Vulnerability to Environmental Stressors: Age-Dependent and Sex-Dependent effects of Nicotine Exposure on Anxiety Utilizing The Light-Enhanced Startle Paradigm
Phillips, Oliver W.
Phillips, Oliver W.
Abstract
This study utilized a rodent model of anxiety in which the defensive behavior of rats provides a measure of operational anxiety known as "Light-Enhanced Startle" (LES; Walker & Davis, 1997). The focus of the study was to explore age-dependent and sex-dependent vulnerabilities to the anxiety-producing effects of nicotine in rats. An additional goal was to establish the LES paradigm for use in adolescent animals. The effect of acute first-time exposure to nicotine on the magnitude of light-enhanced startle in adolescent versus adult rats was measured. Adolescent and adult animals did not have similar dose-response patterns revealing age-dependent differences in nicotine's effect on anxiety. Additionally, these different dose-response patterns depended on sex. In general, nicotine was anxiogenic in most conditions and females showed stronger anxiogenic responses to nicotine than males. Collectively, outcomes reveal age-dependent vulnerabilities to the anxiety-producing effects of nicotine that depend on drug dose and sex, and establish the light-enhanced startle paradigm for use as an animal model of anxiety expression in adolescence, which is viewed as a critical developmental period. Adolescence as a unique period of vulnerability to the effects of stress and advantages of the LES paradigm as an experimental model of anxiety are also discussed.
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Thesis is part of Honors ETD pilot project, 2008-2013. Migrated from Dspace in 2016.
Date
2013-01-01
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Rats, Nicotine, Light-Enhanced Startle, Adolescence, Gender, Sex effects, Stress
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Neuroscience