Pre-pubertal stress and brain development in rodents

- Childhood trauma increases risk for developing psychiatric disorders.
- Stress during childhood (pre-pubertal phase) modifies brain and behaviour.
- The limbic system appears particularly vulnerable to pre-pubertal stress.
- Epigenetic mechanisms are likely to be involved in maintaining long-term changes.

Exposure to adversity early in life is associated with the development of a range of psychiatric disorders in adulthood. Accumulating evidence suggests that pre-puberty is a time of enhanced vulnerability to environmental insults, and that pre-pubertal stress may alter normal brain maturation. In this review, I consider the long-term consequences of pre-pubertal stress on brain and behaviour in rodent models. Recent studies support the notion that pre-puberty is a time of enhanced vulnerability to stress, with particular consequences for the limbic system. Alterations in epigenetic mechanisms are likely to be responsible for the maintenance of enduring modifications in brain and behaviour after experience of pre-pubertal stress.