These findings suggest that maternal separation can reduce the plastic capacity of several brain nuclei, which constitute a physiological basis for the emergence of behavioral disorders presented later in life reported to be linked to early life adversity. Furthermore, maternal separation reduced the number of c-Fos positive cells of the medial amygdala, paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, LS, nucleus accumbens, and medial prefrontal cortex upon social novelty exposure. Maternally separated rats spent less time investigating the novel peer, suggesting that maternal separation reduces social approach motivation. After social novelty exposure, brains were fixed and coronal sections of the medial amygdala, lateral septum (LS), paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens, and medial prefrontal cortex were obtained for c-Fos immunohistochemistry. Male Wistar rats were subjected to 4 h maternal separation during the neonatal period, 9:00 hвЂ“13:00 h from postnatal day 1 to 21, and exposed to social novelty during adulthood. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to assess the long-term effects of maternal separation on social interaction behavior and to assess the activity of several brain regions involved in the processing of social cues and reward upon social novelty exposure, using c-Fos immunohistochemistry as a marker of neuronal activity. Since most of the studies that have evaluated the consequences of maternal separation on social behavior have focused on behavioral analysis, there is a need for a further understanding of the neuronal mechanisms underlying the changes in social behavior induced by maternal separation. At the behavioral level, maternal separation has been shown to increase offensive play-fighting in juvenile individuals and reduce social interest in adulthood. Maternal separation has been shown to disrupt proper brain development and maturation, having profound consequences on the neuroendocrine systems in charge of the stress response, and has been shown to induce behavioral and cognitive abnormalities. 4Centro Universitario Atlacomulco, Universidad AutГіnoma del Estado de Mexico, Atlacomulco, Mexico.3Laboratorio de InvestigaciГіn GenГіmica, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico.2Laboratorio de BiologГa de SueГ±o, Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico.1Laboratorio de NeurobiologГa de la AdicciГіn y Plasticidad Cerebral, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad AutГіnoma del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Mexico.Sara MejГa-ChГЎvez 1, Arturo Venebra-MuГ±oz 1*, Fabio GarcГa-GarcГa 2, Aleph Alejandro Corona-Morales 3 and Arturo Enrique Orozco-Vargas 4

Gomez peer current activity processing