Stress encompasses reactions to stimuli that promote negative and positive effects on cognitive functions, such as learning and memory processes. Herein, we investigate the effect of restraint stress on learning, memory, anxiety levels and locomotor activity of male and female mice. We used the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT), a behavioral task based on the innate exploratory response of rodents to new environments. Moreover, this task is used to simultaneously evaluate learning, memory, anxiety-like behavior and locomotor activity. Male and female mice were tested after repeated daily restraint stress (4 h/day for 3 days). The results showed stress-induced deficits on aversive memory retrieval only in female mice, suggesting a sexual dimorphism on memory acquisition. Furthermore, stressed females exhibited increased anxiety-like behavior and decreased exploratory behavior. Plasma corticosterone levels were similarly increased by restraint stress in both sexes, suggesting that the behavioral outcome was not related to hormonal secretion. Our findings corroborate previous studies, showing a sexually dimorphic effect of restraint stress on cognition. In addition, our study suggests that stress-related acquisition deficit may be the consequence of elevated emotional response in females.

压力包括对刺激的反应，这些刺激会促进对认知功能的负面和正面影响，例如学习和记忆过程。在此，我们研究了约束压力对雄性和雌性小鼠的学习、记忆、焦虑水平和运动活动的影响。我们使用了加迷宫判别回避任务 (PMDAT)，这是一项基于啮齿动物对新环境的先天探索性反应的行为任务。此外，该任务用于同时评估学习、记忆、焦虑样行为和运动活动。雄性和雌性小鼠在重复每日约束压力（4 小时/天，持续 3 天）后进行测试。结果显示，仅在雌性小鼠中，压力引起的厌恶记忆恢复缺陷，表明记忆获取存在性别二态性。此外，压力大的女性表现出更多的焦虑样行为和减少的探索行为。两种性别的克制压力同样会增加血浆皮质酮水平，这表明行为结果与激素分泌无关。我们的研究结果证实了之前的研究，显示了约束压力对认知的两性影响。此外，我们的研究表明，与压力相关的习得缺陷可能是女性情绪反应升高的结果。