Isolation Stress During the Adolescence Exacerbates the Locomotor Activity Effects of Cocaine in Rats

Abstract

Adolescence is a complex developmental period characterized by sexual and brain maturation. Stress during adolescence, as abandonment and social isolation, interferes with maturation of higher brain functions such as decision making, learning and memory. Since rats are social animals, we investigate the consequences of housing rats individually during adolescence on the development of addictive behaviors. From postnatal day 23 (weaning), male and female rats were either housed in groups of the same sex or single housed throughout the experiments. At day 35 they were tested for their locomotor response to cocaine (15 mg/kg). Our results indicate that isolation during adolescence increases the locomotor response to cocaine in drug‐naive female rats. Unlike females rats, isolation during the adolescence does not affect the initial locomotor response to cocaine in males. However, these prepubertal males that normally do not show cocaine sensitization at this age, sensitized to cocaine when reared in isolation during adolescence. These results show that rearing rats in isolation exacerbates the behavioral effects of cocaine, and that the effect varies according to the sex of the animal. They also advocate for closer monitoring of neglected and solitary adolescents since they may be at a higher risk to develop drug dependency.Support or Funding InformationThis work supported by NSF under grant #OISE1545803.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.