Fig. 1: Experimental timeline and social stress conditions.

From postnatal day (PND) 2 to PND 9 individual mice litters were randomly assigned to two groups that were exposed to either increased maternal care (defined as early handled (EH)) or fragmented maternal care (limited nesting and bedding material (LM)). On PND 9, all pups returned to standard rearing conditions, were weaned on PND 23, and housed in groups (4 animals/cage). Upon reaching adulthood (PND 67) male mice (EH or LM) were further separated in two groups that were exposed either to a supportive environment (housing with an ovariectomized female; OX) or an aversive environment (chronic social defeat; CD). Collectively, animals experienced either successive supportive or aversive social environments (EHOX or LMCD, respectively) or contrasting social environments (EHCD and LMOX). Theses manipulations were not followed by changes in baseline corticosterone nor significant changes in NR3C1 mRNA expression (as measured by targeted sequencing) encoding the GR. For further details, see²⁶