Adolescence is a time of intense cortical development and a period of heightened sensitivity to insult. To determine how sex affects the short- and long-term outcomes of early-adolescent stress exposure, we subjected prepubescent (postnatal day 30) male and female mice to repeated multiple concurrent stressors (RMS). In the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), RMS caused the elimination of excitatory synapses in deeper layers while inhibitory synapse density was predominantly diminished in superficial layers. These short-term effects coincided with reduced visuo-spatial working memory and were similar in both sexes. The loss of excitatory synapses and impaired working memory persisted in males past a 30-day recovery period. In contrast, we observed a remarkable recovery of excitatory transmission and behavioral performance in females. Inhibitory synapse density recovered in both sexes. We have also observed a late onset anxiety phenotype in RMS exposed females that was absent in males. Overall, our results indicate that there are marked sex differences in the long-term effects of prepubescent stress on cortical synapses and behavior.

青春期是皮质强烈发育的时期，也是对侮辱高度敏感的时期。为了确定性别如何影响青春期早期压力暴露的短期和长期结果，我们让青春期前（出生后第 30 天）的雄性和雌性小鼠重复承受多个并发压力源 (RMS)。在后顶叶皮质 (PPC) 中，RMS 导致深层兴奋性突触的消除，而浅层抑制性突触密度主要减少。这些短期影响与视觉空间工作记忆的减少同时发生，并且在两性中相似。在 30 天的恢复期之后，男性的兴奋性突触丧失和工作记忆受损仍然存在。相比之下，我们观察到女性的兴奋性传递和行为表现显着恢复。两性的抑制性突触密度均恢复。我们还在 RMS 暴露的女性中观察到晚发性焦虑表型，而男性则没有这种表型。总的来说，我们的结果表明，青春期前压力对皮质突触和行为的长期影响存在明显的性别差异。