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. 2010 Jun 26;210(1):127-30.
doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2010.02.010. Epub 2010 Feb 10.

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

Caroline M Hostetler  1 , Shanna L Harkey, Karen L Bales
Affiliations

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

Caroline M Hostetler et al. Behav Brain Res. .

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.

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Figures

Figure 1
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
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).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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