Blocking CRFR 2 in the NAc shell (gray area in schematic drawing) eliminated heightened passive stress-coping after female partner loss.
A three-day separation from the female partner after five days of group housing resulted in increased floating in the forced swim test, indicative of passive stress-coping, in male prairie voles chronically infused with vehicle bilaterally into the NAc shell. Blocking CRFR2 with astressin-2B in the NAc shell diminished this increased passive stress-coping after separation. Activating CRFR2 by stresscopin increased passive stress-coping in the non-separated males. Passive stress-coping of male prairie voles treated with stresscopin or astressin-2B outside the NAc shell (“miss”; infusion site is depicted by the tips of black arrows in schematic drawing (Paxinos and Watson, 1998)) did not differ from vehicle-treated controls.
CP = caudate putamen; LV = lateral ventricle. Numbers of animals included in the statistics were vehicle paired = 6; separated = 5; antagonist paired = 7; separated = 10; agonist paired = 9; separated = 7; miss = 1. Data are expressed as mean + sem. ** p = 0.001 vs corresponding vehicle-treated group; ## p = 0.001 vs corresponding female-paired group.