UC San Diego

Stress is a known risk factor for the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. While the ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic pathway is best known for its involvement in reward and motivation, recent research has suggested that this system could also play another role that is related to stress. Previous studies have shown that females have a higher sensitivity to stress. Despite these observations, research has tended to focus on the effects of stress on males. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether a non-social stressor impacts the VTA dopaminergic system in DAT-Cre female mice. We also explored whether optogenetic manipulation of VTA dopaminergic neurons has effects on behavior. Finally, we examined how the timing of stress affects behavior. Our results were not able to demonstrate that VTA dopaminergic manipulations influence behavior, possibly due to the small sample size used for this experiment. Continuing to research the role the VTA dopaminergic system plays in stress in females and males will allow us to uncover any potential therapeutic treatments for stress-related disorders as well as provide a greater benefit to people that have been traditionally excluded from research meant to improve public health.