The effects of early life stress on the excitatory/inhibitory balance of the medial prefrontal cortex.

•We investigated how MS affects the mPFC linked to social behavior using rodents.•MS decreased the number of inhibitory neurons and synapses in the mPFC.•MS impaired the social behavior deeply related to the mPFC.•MS attenuated cell activity in the mPFC during social recognition task.•Social deficits by MS is likely to be caused by E/I imbalance in the mPFC.