Early life stress can hamper olfactory sense: IISER Pune study

“Stress during initial years of one’s life, often referred to as the Early Life Stress (ELS) is capable of negatively affecting our sensory systems in more ways than what we know in the field today,” says the paper.

By using a multipronged experimental approach, the group was successful in identifying and analysing that the neural circuit was adversely affected by early life stress. (Representational)

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

A new article from the IISER Pune research group led by Dr Nixon Abraham in the journal Molecular Psychiatry investigates the effect of early life stress on sensory perception, in this case the sense of smell. Their findings could identify better treatment strategies for the sensory and cognitive deficits caused by early life stress.

“Stress during initial years of one’s life, often referred to as the Early Life Stress (ELS) is capable of negatively affecting our sensory systems in more ways than what we know in the field today,” says the paper.

Nixon explained that they used mice in an early maternal separation model to study early life stress. “Once pups are born, they should be with their mothers for a minimum of three weeks. In this case, we separated them in 2 weeks. Then you have to take extra care of their health, as they are separated from the mother,” he said.

Story continues below this ad

The researchers conducted experiments which assessed olfactory learning and studied neural circuits in mice to identify possible stress. Nixon explains using high-end optogenetic techniques, “You can activate and deactivate neurons in the brain using lights. We used electro physiology and in-vivo imaging to find out which neurons are affected in stress conditions in the olfactory pathway. We found out that a specific type of inhibitory neurons are affected by early life stress conditions,” he said.

By using a multipronged experimental approach, the group was successful in identifying and analysing that the neural circuit was adversely affected by early life stress.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories