Stress and estrous cycle affect strategy but not performance of female C57BL/6J mice

Stress induces a switch in learning strategies of male C57BL/6J mice from predominantly spatial to more stimulus-response learning. To study generalization of these findings over sex, we investigated female C57BL/6J mice at three phases of the estrous cycle under non stress and acute (10 min) restraint stress conditions. On a circular hole board (CHB) task, about half of the naive female mice used spatial and stimulus-response strategies to solve the task. Under stress, female mice favored spatial over stimulus-response strategies, with 100% of female mice in the estrus phase. Performance expressed as latency to solve the task is only improved in stressed female mice in the estrus phase. We conclude that the use of learning strategies is influenced by sex and this difference between sexes is aggravated by acute stress

Memory formation under stress: Quantity and quality

Stress shapes memory. Depending on the timing of the stress exposure facilitating and impairing effects of stress are reported on how much is learned and remembered. Beyond such stress-induced changes in the quantity of memory, recent research suggests that stress also affects the contribution of multiple memory systems to performance. Under stress, rigid 'habit' memory gets favored over more flexible 'cognitive' memory. Thus, stress has an impact on the way we learn and remember, that is the quality of memory. This shift between different behavioral strategies on "environmental demands" may facilitate adaptive responses. Here, we review stress effects on both quantity and quality of memory and address possible implications of these effects for the understanding of stress-related psychiatric disorders. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Stress hormones and brain functio

Fear memory for cue and context: Opposite and time-dependent effects of a physiological dose of corticosterone in male BALB/c and C57BL/6J mice

Highly emotional, stress reactive BALB/c mice secrete more corticosterone in response to fear conditioning than the low stress reactive C57BL/6J mice. Fear memory to cue and context differs between the strains. We injected corticosterone at physiological concentrations (250 μg/kg i.p.) 30 min before fear conditioning. Fear memory was tested 48 and 72 h later. Although corticosterone had little effect on acquisition, it differentially affected fear memories in strain dependent manner: while BALB/c mice decreased freezing during cue and context episodes, C57BL/6J mice showed an overall increase in freezing. BALB/c mice showed extinction over days while no such extinction was seen in C57BL/6J mice. Evaluation of these data in the perspective of previous studies using the same fear conditioning paradigm with corticosterone injections 5 min before or immediately after acquisition, revealed the impact of corticosterone during conditioning on the strength of fear memories. In C57BL/6J mice the overall increase in fear memories was higher if corticosterone was injected 30 min pre acquisition than if injected 5 min pre. In contrast, BALB/c mice showed reduced fear memories when injected 30 min pre compared to that seen 5 min pre acquisition. Both strains showed decreased fear memories compared to vehicle if corticosterone was administered immediately after acquisition. We conclude that the timing of physiologically relevant, stress levels increase in corticosterone is essential for the processing of aversive events and the formation of fear memories. However, the quality of the effect depends on the genetic background. These findings contribute to the understanding of the etiology of stress-related disorders. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

Liquidity and Information Asymmetry Around Preliminary Final Reports

This thesis seeks to examine changes in liquidity and information asymmetry around earnings and dividend announcements, using evidence from the Australian market. Unlike previous studies conducted, this thesis examines a market without the presence of official market makers. In Australia earnings and dividend announcements are released simultaneously in companies’ Preliminary Final Reports (PFR). Consequently these announcements are the focus of this thesis. Market participants are interested in liquidity and information asymmetry around PFR announcements to determine whether the release of these announcements provide a trading opportunity for traders with greater research and information processing skills. By partitioning the sample into anticipated and unanticipated PFR announcements this thesis finds that trading activity decreases around anticipated announcements, while trading activity increases around unanticipated announcements. This suggests that uncertainty increases around unanticipated announcements. Liquidity does not change around anticipated announcements. However liquidity decreases following unanticipated announcements. Information asymmetry is found to decrease prior to anticipated announcements and following unanticipated announcements that the market perceives to be good news.Financ

Stress, glucocorticoids and absences in a genetic epilepsy model

Contains fulltext : 102917.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Although stress can alter the susceptibility of patients and animal models to convulsive epilepsy, little is known about the role of stress and glucocorticoid hormones in absence epilepsy. We measured the basal and acute stress-induced (foot-shocks: FS) concentrations of corticosterone in WAG/Rij rats, non-epileptic inbred ACI rats and outbred Wistar rats. The WAG/Rij strain is a genetic model for absence epilepsy and comorbidity for depression, which originates from the population of Wistar rats and, therefore, shares their genetic background. In a separate experiment, WAG/Rij rats were exposed to FS on three consecutive days. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded before and after FS, and the number of absence seizures (spike-wave-discharges, SWDs) was quantified. Both WAG/Rij rats and ACI rats exhibited elevated basal levels of corticosterone and a rapid corticosterone increase in response to acute stress. The WAG/Rij rats also displayed the most rapid normalization of corticosterone during the recovery phase compared to that of ACI and Wistar rats. FS had a biphasic effect on SWDs; an initial suppression was followed by an aggravation of the SWDs. By the third day, this aggravation of seizures was present in the hour preceding FS. This increase in SWDs may arise from anticipatory stress about the upcoming FS. Together, these results suggest that the distinct secretion profile of corticosterone found in WAG/Rij rats may contribute to the severity of the epileptic phenotype. Although the acute stressor results in an initial suppression of SWDs followed by an increase in SWDs, stress prior to a predictable negative event aggravates absences.5 p

Divergent prolactin and pituitary-adrenal activity in rats selectively bred for different dopamine responsiveness

Contains fulltext : 23725___.PDF (publisher's version ) (Open Access