![]() ![]() Behavioural symptoms resulting from ELS exposure may develop during childhood or adolescence or they can be adult-onset. Whilst the effects of stress in adulthood can be transient and reversible, stress during early life is associated with an alteration of the developmental trajectory of the brain, which can lead to long lasting behavioural alterations ( Danese and McEwen, 2012 Bick and Nelson, 2016 Teicher et al., 2016 Agorastos et al., 2019). Further, for mood and anxiety disorders such as depression there is evidence that the course of illness is more severe in patients who experienced ELS, and that these patients are also less responsive to treatment ( Nanni et al., 2012). In humans, experience of early life stress in the form of childhood abuse or neglect (collectively called adverse childhood experiences or ACE) is associated with the development of behavioural abnormalities and psychiatric disorders in adulthood ( Heim and Nemeroff, 2001 Bale et al., 2010 Kessler et al., 2010 Nemeroff, 2016). However, excess stress or stress during a vulnerable period can impose high allostatic load, which ultimately drives or accelerates maladaptive processes ( De Kloet et al., 2005 Danese and McEwen, 2012 Chen and Baram, 2016). Stress disrupts homeostasis and drives an adaptive response, which protects an organism from damage ( Chrousos, 2009). This review discusses the current status of the zebrafish ELS field and its potential as a new ELS model. The zebrafish offers some important advantages such as the ability to non-invasively modulate stress hormone levels in a whole animal and to visualise whole brain activity in freely behaving animals. The zebrafish represents a novel ELS model, with the potential to contribute to answering some of these questions. Despite such advances, several key questions remain inadequately answered, including a comprehensive overview of brain regions and molecular pathways that are altered by ELS and how ELS-induced molecular changes ultimately lead to behavioural changes in adulthood. These studies reveal that ELS has long-term consequences on the brain such as impairment of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, altering learning and memory. In recent decades, rodent studies have significantly advanced our understanding of how early life stress (ELS) affects brain development and behaviour. This stress-induced developmental programming may contribute to the behavioural changes observed in mental illness. The early life period represents a window of increased vulnerability to stress, during which exposure can lead to long-lasting effects on brain structure and function. 2Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.1Living Systems Institute and College of Medicine and Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.Helen Eachus 1 Min-Kyeung Choi 1 Soojin Ryu 1,2* ![]()
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