{"doi":"10.1016/j.schres.2025.09.018","title":"Age- and sex-dependent effects of stressors on activity of the nucleus reuniens of the thalamus","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Stress is a significant socio-environmental risk factor for schizophrenia, with its impact varying with age and sex. Male rats are more vulnerable to the long-term effecct of stress during early adolescence, whereas females are more affected during late adolescence, with both demonstrating a stress-induced hyperdopaminergic state and ventral hippocampal hyperexcitability. The nucleus reuniens of the thalamus (RE) plays a crucial role in modulating hippocampal-prefrontal connectivity and dopamine activity. This study investigated the effect of stress during neurodevelopment on RE activity in both sexes. STUDY DESIGN: Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to a 10-day footshock and restraint stress protocol during early adolescence (Post-natal day [PD] 31-40) or late adolescence (PD41-50) periods. Electrophysiological RE recordings were conducted 1-2 and 5-6 weeks post-stress. STUDY RESULTS: Early adolescence stress did not affect the number of spontaneously active RE neurons in males and females after 1-2 or 5-6 weeks, but it increased the proportion of RE neurons firing in bursts in females. Late adolescence stress increased the number of spontaneously active RE neurons in females at both 1-2 and 5-6 weeks. Females had fewer active RE neurons than males starting earlier in adulthood but not at a younger age (PD47-54). This shows an age-dependent effect on female RE activity. CONCLUSION: Stress had sex-specific effects on RE neuron activity of females, with late adolescence stress increasing the number of spontaneous RE neurons, while early adolescence stress influenced burst firing. Therefore, stress-induced changes in RE activity during adolescence may contribute to females' vulnerability to neuropathology.","journal":"Schizophrenia Research","year":2025,"id":534852,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9615,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":264047,"name":"Anthony A. Grace","orcid":"0000-0003-1864-5504","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1417979,"name":"Daniela Uliana","orcid":"0000-0002-7354-7176","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":79,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:51:52.019261Z","pmid":"41014918","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}