Supporting this hypothesis, both acute handling (Korz and Frey, 2003) and social isolation (Lu et al., 2003) reverse long-term potentiation generated by tetanic stimulation in the hippocampus. In contrast, male rats exposed to early maternal deprivation – a model of early-life stress and schizophrenia – exhibit decreases in CB1 (probably on GABA neurons) receptor immunoreactivity in regions of CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampus, compared to controls on postnatal day 13 (Suarez et al., 2009). Together, these data implicate a role for the endocannabinoid system in the ability of handling to alter behavior and neuronal physiology.
