Mentor: Jennifer Quinn, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study is to use reversal learning to explore the relationship between both chronic and acute early life stress (ELS) and behavioral flexibility.

Early life stress (ELS) is a traumatic or stressful experience occurring early in development, which can be categorized as either acute (isolated event) or chronic (ongoing), and has been linked with mental illness in adults [1][2].

Previous research in mice has shown a connection between chronic ELS and decreased behavioral flexibility, or the ability to learn new information in the face of change, but the relationship between acute ELS and behavioral flexibility is unknown [2].

We used reversal learning in order to test behavioral flexibility, where mice initially underwent operant conditioning in which they were required to perform a specific response (e.g., nosepoke) in order to earn a reinforcer. Then, the response requirement was reversed – the previously reinforced nosepoke no longer yielded a reinforcer, while a previously non-reinforced nosepoke then yielded reinforcement.

We expect to see reduced behavioral flexibility in both acute and chronic ELS groups. Further, we expect that the impairment in the chronic ELS group will be more robust than in the acute ELS group.

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