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The Behavioral Effects of Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Interacting with Sexual Aggression in Female Adolescent Rats
by Ximena De La Cruz
Faculty Advisor: Andrea C. Gore, PhD, Graduate Student Mentor: M. Nicole Kunkel
Trauma from unwanted sexual experiences often elicits the development of psychological symptoms including anxiety, PTSD, and depression in women. These responses are governed by biological systems (e.g., the autonomic nervous and endocrine systems) that are susceptible to influence by other environmental challenges such as exposure to ubiquitous endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Despite commonalities in mechanisms of environmental and socio-sexual stress, this area has been unexplored to my knowledge. In this study, I used a model of sexual aggression in rodents (SCAR; Shors et al., 2016) combined with pre and postnatal exposure to EDCs, to analyze behavioral changes from socio-sexual stress in female rats. Adolescent females were either unexposed or repeatedly exposed to sexually experienced adult males and assessed for anxiety and mate preference for male aggressors. Higher anxiety and lower preference for male aggressors were predicted in females exposed to SCAR while EDC exposure was expected to exacerbate these behaviors. Results revealed no influence from SCAR exposure, but significant implications from EDC exposure in mate preference. Females exposed to EDCs also exhibited altered social behaviors regardless of sexual experience in adolescence. These findings elucidate influence of external stressors across a lifespan and help advance our understanding of neuroendocrine disruption as it affects behavior.