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Effects of chronic stress on reinstatement of palatable food seeking: Sex differences and relationship to trait anxiety
In previous works by Ball et al. (2022), the authors demonstrated the potential role played by chronic stress in stimulating the recurrence of palatable food-related behaviors in male rats. Sex was shown to be an essential determinant of the neurobehavioral outcomes of stress exposure, which spurred the authors to investigate whether sex plays a role in the recurrence of behaviors following the exposure to stress, in addition to exploring the potential influence of anxiety which is known to raise the odds of suffering from stress-related pathologies, using an experimental rat model. Rats were evaluated for anxiety and separated into high- or low-trait anxiety phenotypes using elevated plus maze testing, while stress was introduced in extinction training via a period of daily restraining (from zero to 90 minutes/day, for a total of seven days). Finally, the rats’ palatable food-related behaviors were evaluated through cue- and pellet-priming. Analysis of the results revealed that chronic stress exposure decreased the intensity of cue-induced reinstatement of food-seeking behaviors in female rats, despite showing a higher initial response, compared to male rats. On the other hand, a history of exposure to stress lead to an increased response in low-anxiety phenotype rats, and a decreased response in high-anxiety phenotype rats, to pellet priming-induced reinstatement of palatable food-seeking behavior, while female rats showed no response irrespective of anxiety phenotype and prior stress exposure. The authors conclude that trait anxiety and sex may play a role in modulating the likelihood of recurrent behaviors following chronic stress events, providing a potential avenue to aid in eating disorder and obesity treatment customizations. [NPID: Anxiety, chronic stress, food seeking, reinstatement, relapse, sex differences]
Year: 2020
