TY - JOUR TI - Altered corticolimbic connectivity reveals sex-specific adolescent outcomes in a rat model of early life adversity AU - Honeycutt, Jennifer A AU - Demaestri, Camila AU - Peterzell, Shayna AU - Silveri, Marisa M AU - Cai, Xuezhu AU - Kulkarni, Praveen AU - Cunningham, Miles G AU - Ferris, Craig F AU - Brenhouse, Heather C A2 - Shackman, Alexander A2 - Wassum, Kate M A2 - Pena, Cate VL - 9 PY - 2020 DA - 2020/01/20 SP - e52651 C1 - eLife 2020;9:e52651 DO - 10.7554/eLife.52651 UR - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52651 AB - Exposure to early-life adversity (ELA) increases the risk for psychopathologies associated with amygdala-prefrontal cortex (PFC) circuits. While sex differences in vulnerability have been identified with a clear need for individualized intervention strategies, the neurobiological substrates of ELA-attributable differences remain unknown due to a paucity of translational investigations taking both development and sex into account. Male and female rats exposed to maternal separation ELA were analyzed with anterograde tracing from basolateral amygdala (BLA) to PFC to identify sex-specific innervation trajectories through juvenility (PD28) and adolescence (PD38;PD48). Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) was assessed longitudinally (PD28;PD48) in a separate cohort. All measures were related to anxiety-like behavior. ELA-exposed rats showed precocial maturation of BLA-PFC innervation, with females affected earlier than males. ELA also disrupted maturation of female rsFC, with enduring relationships between rsFC and anxiety-like behavior. This study is the first providing both anatomical and functional evidence for sex- and experience-dependent corticolimbic development. KW - innervation KW - basolateral amygdala KW - prefrontal cortex KW - adolescence KW - maternal separation KW - behavior JF - eLife SN - 2050-084X PB - eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd ER -