, 2013) social avoidance (Lukas and Neumann, 2014), and alterations in cocaine sensitivity (Shimamoto et al., 2011 and Shimamoto et al., 2014) in female rats, lending it translational validity to a number of stress-related mental illnesses. Finally, Carmen Sandi and colleagues have developed an intriguing model of intimate partner violence. Although male rats will not normally attack females, Cordero et al. (2012) found that adult male rats that were exposed to stress during peripuberty will attack female cage mates when mildly agitated. In defeated females, the degree of aggression experienced predicted changes in serotonin transporter gene expression as well as learned helplessness,

and varied according to pre-aggression anxiety (Poirier et al.,

2013). Whether this stress model can be used to predict individual differences in fear conditioning and extinction tests has not been investigated, but it is also an attractive model from a translational MLN8237 standpoint. Interpersonal violence—especially when the attacker is a domestic partner—is one of the traumas most likely to lead to PTSD in women (Breslau et al., 1999 and Forbes et al., 2014). This model may be especially relevant for military populations, since male-to-female sexual assault is unfortunately common in deployed troops (Haskell et al., 2010 and Street et al., 2009). selleck chemicals llc Women are more likely than men to develop PTSD after a trauma, but whether the determinants of resilience or susceptibility are distinct in men and women are unclear. Most likely, a sex-specific combination of genetic (Ressler et al., 2011), hormonal (Lebron-Milad et al., 2012), and life experience (Kline et al., 2013) factors (Table 1) contribute to the long-term consequences of

trauma exposure for a given individual. Preclinical work in animal models of stress and fear has next great potential to identify these factors, but dissecting sex differences within these paradigms requires careful consideration when interpreting behavioral differences. For an excellent, comprehensive guide to launching a sex differences behavioral neuroscience research program, see Becker et al. (2005). Approaches that take into account within-sex individual variability in behavior rather than performing simple male vs. female comparisons will likely be best able to identify the factors that confer resilience and susceptibility in each sex. Clearly, a great deal of work remains, and many mechanisms of stress and fear that have been accepted in males for years await validation in females. However, addressing the critical need for improved PTSD prevention and treatment in women is a challenge that we have no choice but to meet. “
“Decades of research on human stress resilience have followed its initial description in at risk children in the 1970s (Masten, 2001). Resilience is defined as the adaptive maintenance of normal physiology, development and behavior in the face of pronounced stress and adversity.