Preliminary Evidence of Altered Sensitivity to Benzodiazepines as a Function of Maternal Care in the Rat
- 1 December 2004
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 1032 (1) , 320-323
- https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1314.051
Abstract
Variations in maternal care over the first week of life alter the expression of genes encoding for various subunits of the GABA(A)/benzodiazepine (BZ) receptor in the amygdala, a brain region associated with fear behavior. Increased maternal licking/grooming and arched-back nursing are associated with decreased fearfulness and enhanced expression of the subunits that confer BZ sensitivity. In these studies we found that the offspring of high licking/grooming-arched-back nursing mothers also showed increased behavioral sensitivity to acute BZ treatment, suggesting a functional relation between the effect on gene expression and fear behavior.Keywords
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