Social avoidance is a common symptom of PTSD, and scientists working to better understand why have laboratory evidence that while stress hormone levels consistently increase in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, there can be polar opposite consequences in parts of the brain down the line.
In response to a significant stressor and a subsequent surge of stress hormones, some rodent models experience the expected short-term increase in the excitability of neurons in areas of their brain key to memory and to how they see their environment, as part of the natural instinct to fight or flee.
Other genetically identical mice instead experience a decrease in neuron excitability in this key area called the dorsal hippocampus, Dr. Chung Sub Kim, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, and his colleagues report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
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