This research was conducted to investigate the influence of music therapy on the behavior of rats at different stages of development. The procedures were performed when animals were approximately 1 month of age, and repeated once they completed 2, 3, and 4 months. Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos was played at a sound intensity of 65 dB for 4 hours per day, 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon (12 hours, for 4 days) when the animals reached each age. In the Open Field test, the locomotion in rats with 4 months old was significantly less than in other ages. Female rats 1, 2, and 3 months old, which were exposed to music, increased the percentage of open arms time in the Elevated Plus Maze test while male rats 1 month old reduced this parameter. The statistical differences were observed in the Forced Swimming test only when both genders were 1 month old. In the Inhibitory Avoidance test, an improvement in age-dependent memory was observed. The music therapy based on Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos positively interfered with the behavior of rats at different developmental stages. This result corroborates the clinical practice of palliative care, in which music therapy is generally used to improve patients' quality of life with anxiety and depression.
The hypoxic ischemic (HI) brain triggers a cascade of biochemical events that may lead to extensive cell death, leading to cognitive and behavioral deficits. Exposure to music, in turn, has been proposed as beneficial neuroprotective effect during brain development and enhance the capacity of learning and memory in rats. However, the responses produced by these events appear to be dependent on the stage of development of the brain. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the neuroprotective effect of Mozart's Sonata in learning and memory in rats with and without HI, at different stages of development of the central nervous system. To this end, we used female Wistar rats (n = 48) evaluated in a step-down inhibitory avoidance task, which was divided into three stages: training, learning/short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). HI was induced in rats with sodium nitrite at 3 months of age. It was used 6 experimental groups of rats (n = 8/group), divided into G1 (control), G2 (control with HI), G3 (acute music), G4 (acute music and HI), G5 (chronic music), G6 (chronic music and HI). The results showed that the control animals, when assessed in sequential manner to complete 1, 2, 3 and 4 months of age showed a response that was progressively increased when rats were exposed once a month with Mozart Sonata for 4h/day/4 days. This response was maintained even with the potential damage produced by sodium nitrite. The most significant effects of this experimental stage was at 3 and 4 months old. Conversely, when exposed 4h/day/4 months, the animals only showed responses at 4 months age, which was not maintained against damage caused by HI. In summary, the data could infer that exposure to Mozart's Sonata appears to be an important factor for stimulating neuronal plasticity, as when exposed acutely it was revealed answers suggestive of learning and memory even after induced HI injury, while chronic exposure showed no neuroprotective effect against injury.These findings seem to demonstrate the possibility of using an important tool to neuroplasticity, relevant to the development of the brain and neurological rehabilitation.
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