Neurosteroids generally reduce anxiety, but a new paper shows that they promote anxiety in female mice around puberty via the selective desensitization of extrasynaptic GABAA receptors made up of α4β2δ subunits. This change increases input resistance and excitation of hippocampal pyramidal neurons, thus promoting anxiety.
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McCarthy, M. GABA receptors make teens resistant to input. Nat Neurosci 10, 397–399 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0407-397
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn0407-397