BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Behavioral Endocrinology
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1659339
This article is part of the Research TopicAnimal Models of Anxiety and Depression: Exploring the Underlying Mechanisms of Sex Differences - Volume IIView all 5 articles
Sex-and reward-dependent effects of early life scarcity-adversity on adolescent behavioral responses to natural rewards
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, United States
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Early life adversity (ELA) increases risk for multiple psychiatric disorders that are characterized by reward-related dysfunction. Disrupted reward-related processes are commonly observed in humans and rodents following ELA. Rodent studies have shown sex differences in response to natural and drug rewards at baseline, following ELA, and in rodent models of psychiatric diseases that are potentiated by ELA. Yet, less is known regarding the development of ELA-induced alterations in reward-related responses, including how these may differ by sex. To this end, we tested behavioral responses to consummatory and social rewards in control and scarcity-adversity male and female rats using sucrose preference, palatable food consumption, and social play tests during peripuberty and adolescence. Our results suggest no impact of early life scarcity-adversity during peripuberty, but sex- and reward-dependent adolescent effects in which females display reduced sucrose preference whereas males display lower levels of social play solicitations (i.e., dorsal contacts). These findings suggest age-, sex-, and reward-specific effects of early life scarcity-adversity in response to consummatory and social rewards, which appear to emerge during adolescence.
Keywords: Early life adversity, development, Reward, Sucrose, palatable food, Play, adolescence, sex differences
Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Salazar, Nguyen, Oak, Jackson and Rincón-Cortés. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Millie Rincón-Cortés, Department of Neuroscience, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, United States
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