D2 antagonist during development decreases anxiety and infanticidal behavior in adult female prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster)

Abstract

On postnatal day 8, prairie vole pups were randomly assigned a treatment of 1mg/kg SKF38393 (D1 agonist), quinpirole (D2 agonist), SCH23390 (D1 antagonist), eticlopride (D2 antagonist), or saline vehicle. As adults, females treated with eticlopride exhibited reduced anxiety-like behavior in an elevated plus maze and a reduction in infanticidal behavior. These behavioral effects were not seen in males. These data demonstrate that a single exposure to a D2 antagonist during development can have persistent, sex-specific effects on behavior into adulthood.

Figure 1

Proportion of time spent in either plus maze arms, defined as [(time in open arm)/(time in open arm + time in closed arm)], for each female (A) and male (B) subjects. Sample sizes are presented in parentheses. * Indicates statistically significant differences compared to saline controls.

Figure 2

Attacking and non-attacking female (A) and male (B) subjects in the alloparental care test. Eticlopride treated females attack less than saline control females (χ²=5.85, *p=0.037).