Our group aims to investigate the psychological, neurobiological, neurogenetic and epigenetic mechanisms involved in the differential psychiatric-relevant profiles of two genetically-based rat models, namely the inbred Roman Low-Avoidance (RLA) and Roman High-Avoidance (RHA) rat strains. These two rat strains exhibit differential profiles in anxiety-, depression-, stress-, impulsivity- and schizophrenia relevant behavioral and neural traits, as well as markedly divergent vulnerability to abused drugs and addiction. These profiles make them interesting models of internalizing (RLA) vs externalizing (RHA) psychopathological symptoms. We intend to investigate whether these genetically-based profiles can be enduringly influenced by “positive” early experiences (i.e., infantile-juvenile environmental stimulation treatments), such as neonatal/juvenile handling-stimulation. Most importantly, we will study whether the early experienceinduced effects on neurobehavioral traits are linked to epigenomic changes by carrying out an “epigenome-wide association study” (EWAS) in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of “early experience”-treated and untreated rats of both strains and sexes.
The general objective is to start elucidating some of the brain genetic-epigenetic mechanisms that may mediate the enduring effects of early “positive” (vs “negative”) experience on neurobehavioral psychiatric-relevant traits.
