Fig. 1

Traumatic stress response in alcohol-naive male and female rats. a Experimental design. Rats underwent the conditioned place aversion paradigm using bobcat urine. Controls were never exposed to predator odor (PO) stress. Avoidance behavior was measured 24 h post-stress (day 1). Acoustic startle reactivity was evaluated at day 2 post-stress and is expressed as Vmax normalized by body weight in kilograms (Vmax/kg b.w.). Anxiety-like behavior was tested at day 17 after PO exposure. b Change in time spent in PO-paired chamber in rats indexed as avoiders or non-avoiders. c Avoidance distribution of stressed rats (avoiders × non-avoiders). d Weight gain measured 24 h after exposure to PO. e Acoustic startle response at 95 dB. f Acoustic startle response at 105 dB. g Acoustic startle response at 115 dB. Data presented as mean ± SEM. Asterisk denotes P < .05