Background

An inflated fear response to mild threats is a hallmark of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Apprehension to a future event, or anxiety, can be adaptive, but can also become maladaptive 

Early life stress (ELS) has been demonstrated to have long-term effects on cognition, emotion, and behavior.

Limited bedding and nesting (LBN) is robust model of chronic ELS (cELS)

Stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) is typically measured as an increase in “freezing” behavior, defined as the lack of all movement except that necessary for respiration. Animals who previously experienced ELS exhibit more freezing behavior following mild fear conditioning in adulthood

As a measure for anxiety-like behavior, thigmotaxis is used, and is defined as time an animal spends moving along the perimeter of an area.

To fully understand the effect of ELS on subsequent fear and anxiety behaviors, cELS should be a focus of study