Topic: stress hormone levels

Exposure to early life stress (ELS) can alter neurodevelopment and is implicated in disease risk in later life, including psychiatric and behavioural disorders. The developing brain is plastic, thus ELS may affect the development trajectory of the brain by altering processes such as neurogenesis. ELS is known to impair adult hippocampal neurogenesis, however, the brain regions, cell types and underlying molecular mechanisms altered by ELS during development are unclear. Using an optogenetic zebrafish model to elevate stress hormone levels, we analysed the effects of ELS on neurogenesis during