Event Abstract Back to Event Disruptions of mother-infant relationship alters adult emotional behaviour in rats and mice Deborah Suchecki1* 1 Universida de Federal de Sao Paulo, Brazil The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the main neuroendocrine system of response to stress and imbalance of the system’s activity is believed to be at the core of numerous psychiatric pathologies. During the neonatal period, the glucocorticoid response to stress is maintained at low levels, by specific maternal behaviours, and this feature is essential for proper brain development. Effective ways of testing the impact of increased secretion of corticosterone during an essentially anabolic developmental period on adulthood behaviour involves the separation of the neonate from its mother for periods ranging from 3 to 24 h, since it has been shown that a desinhibition of the stress response is achieved by these procedures. In human beings, disturbed childhood represents one of the most consistent risk factors for increased vulnerability to psychopathologies in adulthood. The pioneering studies by Seymour Levine set the fundamental stone of a prolific and promising field that will most likely help neuroscientists to unveil the neurobiological underpinnings of stress-related emotional and mood disorders. Based on a series of studies, we propose that maternal separation and maternal deprivation do indeed produce changes in emotional-related behaviours, such as anxiety-type behaviour, behavioural sensitization induced by ethanol, and sleep, but that glucocorticoids, which are increased in neonates submitted to these paradigms, do not seem to be the mediators of these changes in adulthood. Instead, it appears that changes in extra-hypothalamic neurotransmitters, including increased serotonin and decreased GABA hippocampal concentrations may be the orchestrators of these behavioural outcomes.This work was supported by grants from the National Research Counsil (CNPq, grant # 479671/2004-4), São Paulo Research Support Foundation (FAPESP, grant # 2006/06415-4) and Association for the Support of Psychopharmacology (AFIP). Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Stress satellite symposium lectures Citation: Suchecki D (2009). Disruptions of mother-infant relationship alters adult emotional behaviour in rats and mice. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.083 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 05 Jun 2009; Published Online: 05 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Deborah Suchecki, Universida de Federal de Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, suchecki@psicobio.epm.br Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Deborah Suchecki Google Deborah Suchecki Google Scholar Deborah Suchecki PubMed Deborah Suchecki Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.