CRC TRR 58 - A01: The Influence of early life stress on anxiety-like behavior: the significance of the preand postnatal phase for gene x environment interactions and the modifiability of its outcome later in life

Basic data for this project

Description

Individual differences in natural anxiety traits as well as in the etiology of anxiety disorders are due to both, genetic and environmental factors. Therefore interactions of genetic predisposition for anxiety and a threatening environment during early phases of life for the expression of anxiety-related behaviors in adulthood are studied. For this purpose, mice lacking the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) totally or in part - an established mouse model of anxiety - and wild-type controls (a) will be compared regarding their anxiety-like behavior in adulthood (d), as modulated by environmental conditions during pregnancy and lactation (b). In addition, it will be studied whether or not levels of anxiety can be modified by significant events later in life (c). More specifically, we assume that the experimentally induced experience of being a loser around puberty will amplify levels of anxiety-related behavior, whereas the experience of being a winner will bring about the opposite effect. We also hypothesize that levels of anxiety-like behavior and changes in this trait are reflected by levels of stress, changes in fear memory extinction, and corresponding neurophysiological patterns of activity in prefrontal-cortex-amygdala pathways as well as in cortico-limbic morphology. From this project we expect new insights into how gene x environment interactions during early phases of life bring about a programming of anxiety circuits in the CNS and to what extent these circuits retain their plasticity in adulthood.