Effects of Maternal Separation and Subsequent Stress on Behaviors and Brain Monoamines in Rats.

Childhood adversity can induce maladaptive behaviors and increase risk for affective disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, personality disorders, and vulnerability to stress in adulthood. Deprivation of maternal care interrupts brain development through the disturbance of various neurotransmitters, however, the details remain unclear. The features of the symptoms of disorders are largely determined by early stress protocol, genetic characteristics (line), and the sex of the animals. The purpose of current study was (1) to assess behavioral changes in adult Wistar rats of both sexes after early life stress; (2) to determine the levels of monoamines in brain structures involved in the motor, emotional, and social reactions in rats aged 1 and 2 months; and (3) to determine the level of monoamines after physical or emotional stress in adult rats. The rat pups were separated from their dams and isolated from siblings in tight boxes at a temperature of 22-23 °C for 6 h during postnatal days 2-18. The data were processed predominantly using two-way analysis of variance and the Newman-Keys test as the post hoc analysis. The adult rats demonstrated an increase in motor activity and aggressiveness and a decrease in levels of anxiety and sociability. Behavioral disturbances were accompanied by region-, sex-, and age-dependent changes in the levels of monoamines and their metabolites. The dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems were found to be sensitive to psycho-emotional stress.

Features of Psychomotor Coordination in Adolescents with Neuropsychiatric Pathology Enrolled in a Standard Educational Program.

The imbalance between the speed and accuracy of cognitive-motor operations can lead to the formation of abnormal behavioral programs fraught with serious negative consequences for the individual. For successful correction and prevention of social disadaptation in adolescents with nervous and mental diseases and functional disorders in mental sphere in general education schools, the peculiarities of their psychomotor activity should be taken into account. We measured some parameters of visual-motor coordination and sensorimotor reaction in adolescents with mental disorders with (n = 36) or without (n = 27) organic brain damage. Adolescents from both groups showed higher speed, but poorer accuracy and smoothness, of movements than typically developing students (n = 70). The visual and acoustic reaction times were longer in adolescents with mental disorders without organic brain damage than in reference groups.