Differences in the prevalence and presentation of psychiatric illnesses in men and women
suggest that neurobiological sex differences confer vulnerability or resilience in these
disorders. Rodent behavioral models are critical for understanding the mechanisms of these
differences. Reward processing and punishment avoidance are fundamental dimensions of
the symptoms of psychiatric disorders. Here we explored sex differences along these
dimensions using multiple and distinct behavioral paradigms. We found no sex difference in …

Background Men and women show differences in prevalence, symptomology, and treatment
responsivity in most brain disorders. Here we use rodent models to explore sex differences
in reward-seeking and punishment-avoidance behaviors, which are critical to the
pathophysiology of psychiatric illnesses that also show sex differences, such as anxiety,
major depressive, substance use, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders. Methods In
the Punishment Risk Task (PRT), a rewarded action was associated with an escalating …