Early-life stress hinders development of neurons in mice, causing attention disorders

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/bu-esh112718.php

Public Release: 27-Nov-2018
Brown University

Women are roughly twice as likely as men to develop depression, anxiety and other stress-related problems, including difficulty with attention, and new research from Brown University neuroscientists sheds light on the biological reasons why.

Studying mice whose mothers had inadequate supplies to make nests -- a model for early-life stress in humans -- the researchers found that only female mice developed problems with attention, in part because they had fewer "tuning" neurons in the part of the brain that makes sense of rules and regulating emotions.

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