Effect of early life stress on impulsive aggression and neural circuit in the prefrintal cortex

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K13111
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Basic / Social brain science
• Research Institution: Tottori University
• Principal Investigator: Hata Yoshio 鳥取大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (40212146)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 一坂 吏志 鳥取大学, 医学部, 助教 (50359874)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 前頭前野 / 扁桃体 / 神経回路 / ストレス

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present study explores the postnatal development of neural mechanism of impulsive aggression in rats. I examined behavioral effects of pharmacological inhibition of neural activity in the orbitofrontal cortex. The inhibition of orbitofrontal cortex increased impulsive aggression, showing that the orbitofrontal cortex suppresses impulsive aggression as reported in human. Also, I developed a novel animal model to study the effect of early life stress which combines physical stress by electric shock with social isolation. In addition, I found a novel anxiety-like behavior in the open field test, which is the leaning behavior against the wall at high position.

Free Research Field

発達神経科学