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Published on: May 10, 2015
D2 antagonist during development decreases anxiety and infanticidal behavior in adult female prairie voles (Microtus
Caroline M Hostetler1, Shanna L Harkey, Karen L Bales
1Department of Psychology, University of California at Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616, USA. chostetler@ucdavis.edu <chostetler@ucdavis.edu>
Abstract:
On postnatal day 8, prairie vole pups were randomly assigned a treatment of 1mg/kg SKF38393 (D1 agonist), quinpirole (D2 agonist), SCH23390 (D1 antagonist), eticlopride (D2 antagonist), or saline vehicle. As adults, females treated with eticlopride exhibited reduced anxiety-like behavior in an elevated plus maze and a reduction in infanticidal behavior. These behavioral effects were not seen in males. These data demonstrate that a single exposure to a D2 antagonist during development can have persistent, sex-specific effects on behavior into adulthood.

