Different early-life adversity paradigms have disparate effects on maternal care, neuronal activation, and social behavior in developing mice

Early-life adversity (ELA) predisposes individuals to neuropsychiatric conditions, with different types of adverse experiences linked more strongly to certain maladaptive outcomes. Maternal separation with early weaning (MSEW) and limited bedding and nesting (LBN) are two widely used mouse models of ELA, however the effect of these paradigms on offspring through differences in rearing experiences including maternal care and neuronal activation remains incompletely explored. To address this, we investigated the differential effects of control, MSEW, and LBN rearing and found that LBN dams showed reduced duration of bouts on the nest, increased exits from the nest, and more attempts at nest maintenance, whereas MSEW dams showed control-like caregiving aside from the daily separations from the litter. On postnatal day 7, MSEW and LBN pups showed distinct neuronal activation patterns in hippocampal subregions associated with stress and social recognition. Further, assessment of social reco..., , # Different early-life adversity paradigms have disparate effects on maternal care, neuronal activation, and social behavior in developing mice This dataset is from \"Bapat, V. A., Waters, R. C., Gordon, J. K., & Gould, E. (2026). Different early-life adversity paradigms have disparate effects on maternal care, neuronal activation, and social behavior in developing mice. Neurobiology of Stress,100788 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2026.100788](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2026.100788)\". Access this dataset on Dryad : DOI: 10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0rb This study investigated the differential effects of two early life adversity (ELA) models ; maternal separation with early weaning (MSEW) and limited bedding and nesting (LBN) on maternal care, neuronal activation in ELA pups, and age- and sex-specific social recognition in ELA offspring over development and dorsal hippocampus structural plasticity measures associated with social recognition. ## Available files 1. \"Bapat_et_al.__2026_da..., ,