Juvenile female rats, but not male rats, show renewal, reinstatement, and spontaneous recovery following extinction of conditioned fear

Anxiety disorders emerge early, and girls are significantly more likely to develop anxiety compared to boys. However, sex differences in fear during development are poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated juvenile male and female rats in the relapse behaviors following extinction of conditioned fear. In all experiments, 18-d-old rats first received three white-noise–footshock pairings on day 1. On day 2, extinction involved 60 white-noise...