Abstract
Not all who are trauma-exposed develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An important feature in its emergence is adverse early-life experiences, which should be represented in preclinical models of PTSD. Here we present post-weaning social isolation as a rodent model of early-life adversity that leads to impaired extinction of conditioned fear, which is associated with PTSD. This model has reasonable face validity, as early social experiences play a critical role in risks of PTSD. We describe and discuss the various nuances in the different methodologies currently employed, and suggest ways to maximize reliability and reproducibility. A main focus is to avoid creating a sensory deprivation condition that leads to schizophrenic rather than PTSD symptoms. The goal of this protocol is to provide the reader with guidelines on how to study early-life stress with results that are translatable to the human condition.
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Drummond, K., Kim, J.H. (2023). Periadolescent Social Isolation Effects on Extinction of Conditioned Fear. In: Pinna, G. (eds) Translational Methods for PTSD Research. Neuromethods, vol 198. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3218-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3218-5_2
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