Barillietal,2026. EJN

Exposure to uncontrollable stressful stimuli leads to several responses, including neurological changes associated with vulnerability to psychiatric disorders. Such changes may be amplified when stress occurs during adolescence, likely due to the enhanced brain plasticity that occurs at this stage. Moreover, literature data suggest that stress responses vary with the nature of the stressor. In this study, we investigated whether social isolation and restraint stress during the juvenile phase differentially affect rats and whether these effects are sex specific.