• N Carrier and M Kabbaj.
• Department of Biomedical Sciences, Program in Neurosciences, College of Medicine, Florida State University, USA.
• Neuroscience. 2012 Jun 14;212:86-92.

AbstractConsiderable sex differences occur in the incidence and prevalence of anxiety disorders where women are more anxious than men, particularly in situations where social interaction is required. In preclinical studies, the social interaction test represents a valid animal model to study sex differences in social anxiety. Indeed, female rats engage less in conspecific interactions than their male counterparts, which are behaviors indicative of higher social anxiety in female rats. In this work, we implicated extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in mediating social interaction. Indeed, female rats' had lower ERK2 expression compared to male rats, and overexpression of ERK2 in the mPFC increases their social interaction to the level seen in their male counterparts. These data indicate that the sexually dimorphic expression of ERK2 mediates social anxiety-like behaviors.Copyright © 2012 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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