Social Stress in Adolescence, Social Brain Development, and Sex Differences in Rats
February 13, 2023
Dr. Cheryl Mccormick
Adolescence is a time of social learning and social restructuring and of ongoing brain development in humans and many other species. My lab has been investigating the hypothesis that adolescence is a sensitive period of development relative to adulthood for 20 years. In this talk, I describe how we have tested various predictions derived from this hypothesis in an animal model that involves social instability stress (SS) in rats. I end with our working model as to how SS in adolescence leads to effects on social behaviour that remain evident long after the stress exposure in adolescence, and the importance of investigating both sexes.
Bio
Cheryl McCormick is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Mathematics and Science at Brock University. She is the Editor-in Chief of Hormones and Behavior, the journal of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. The main research focus of her lab is investigating how social stressors in adolescence shape brain and behavioural development, and the basis of age differences in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responses to stressors in rodent models of both sexes.
