The context pre-exposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a modified form of standard contextual fear conditioning that dissociates learning about the context during a preexposure phase from learning the context-shock association during an immediate shock training phase conducted on separate days. Fear conditioning in the CPFE is an associative process in which only animals that are preexposed to the same context they are later given an immediate shock in demonstrate freezing when tested for conditioned fear memory. Previous research has shown that the hippocampus and amygdala are necessary for different phases of the CPFE, but whether other brain regions are also involved is unknown. The present study examined expression of the immediate-early gene early growth response gene 1 (Egr-1; also called Zif268, Ngfi-a, Krox-24) in the dorsal hippocampus, lateral nucleus of the amygdala, retrosplenial cortex, and several prefrontal cortex regions (infralimbic and prelimbic medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortex) following each phase of the CPFE in juvenile rats. Animals preexposed to the conditioning context displayed fear conditioned freezing during a retention test whereas rats preexposed to an alternate context did not. Following context preexposure, Egr-1 mRNA was elevated in context and alternate context exposed animals compared to homecaged control rats in almost all regions analyzed. Following the context-shock training phase, fear conditioned rats displayed significantly more Egr-1 mRNA expression in the infralimbic, prelimbic, and orbitofrontal cortices compared to the alternate context preexposed control rats. These differences in Egr-1 expression were not found in amygdala between the preexposed context and alternate context rats. No sex differences were observed following preexposure or training in any regions analyzed. The findings suggest that increased expression of Egr-1 within the prefrontal cortex is associated with contextual fear conditioning in the CPFE paradigm.

The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a variant of contextual fear conditioning in which context learning and context-shock associations occur on separate occasions. The CPFE with an immediate shock emerges between Postnatal Day (PND) 17 and 24 in the rat and depends on hippocampal NMDA-receptor function in PND 24 rats (Schiffino et al., 2011). This study investigated this ontogenetic effect further and reports three findings: First, the CPFE is absent on PND19 but emerges modestly in rats given exposure on PND 21. Second, the absence of the CPFE on PND17 does not reflect inability to consolidate the context-shock association established on the training day. Lastly, the CPFE on PND 24 requires exposure to the combined features of the context. These results are the first to show that the early development of contextual fear conditioning depends on conjunctive representations and that processes underlying the CPFE begin to emerge around PND 21 in the rat.

Developmental alcohol exposure can permanently alter brain structures and produce functional impairments in many aspects of behavior, including learning and memory. This study evaluates the effect of neonatal alcohol exposure on adult neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the implications of such exposure for hippocampus-dependent contextual fear conditioning. Alcohol-exposed rats (AE) received 5.25 g/kg/day of alcohol on postnatal days (PD) 4-9 (third trimester in humans), in a binge-like manner. Two control groups were included: sham-intubated (SI) and suckle-control (SC). Animals were housed in social cages (3/cage) after weaning. On PD80, animals were injected with 200 mg/kg BrdU. Half of the animals were sacrificed two hours later. The remainder were sacrificed on PD114 to evaluate cell survival; separate AE, SI, and SC rats not injected with BrdU were tested for the context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE; ∼PD117). There was no difference in the number of BrdU+ cells in AE, SI and SC groups on PD80. On PD114, cell survival was significantly decreased in AE rats, demonstrating that developmental alcohol exposure damages new cells' ability to incorporate into the network and survive. Behaviorally tested SC and SI groups preexposed to the training context 24h prior to receiving a 1.5mA 2s footshock froze significantly more during the context test than their counterparts preexposed to an alternate context. AE rats failed to show the CPFE. The current study shows the detrimental, long-lasting effects of developmental alcohol exposure on hippocampal adult neurogenesis and contextual fear conditioning.

In the novel object recognition (OR) paradigm, rats are placed in an arena where they encounter two sample objects during a familiarization phase. A few minutes later, they are returned to the same arena and are presented with a familiar object and a novel object. The object location recognition (OL) variant involves the same familiarization procedure but during testing one of the familiar objects is placed in a novel location. Normal adult rats are able to perform both the OR and OL tasks, as indicated by enhanced exploration of the novel vs. the familiar test item. Rats with hippocampal lesions perform the OR but not OL task indicating a role of spatial memory in OL [1]. Recently, these tasks have been used to study the ontogeny of spatial memory but the literature has yielded conflicting results [2, 3]. The current experiments add to this literature by: 1) behaviorally characterizing these paradigms in postnatal day (PD) 21, 26 and 31-day-old rats; 2) examining the role of NMDA systems in OR vs. OL; and 3) investigating the effects of neonatal alcohol exposure on both tasks. Results indicate that normal-developing rats are able to perform OR and OL by PD21, with greater novelty exploration in the OR task at each age. Second, memory acquisition in the OL but not OR task requires NMDA receptor function in juvenile rats. Lastly, neonatal alcohol exposure does not disrupt performance in either task. Implications for the ontogeny of incidental spatial learning and its disruption by developmental alcohol exposure are discussed.

We report activation of the immediate-early gene Egr-1 in the lateral amygdala (LA), hippocampus (CA1), and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) 30-min following the training phase in the context pre-exposure facilitation effect (CPFE) and standard context fear conditioning (180 sec context exposure → shock). On day one of the CPFE paradigm, postnatal day (PD) 31 rats (±1) were pre-exposed to Context A (Pre) or Context B (Alt-Pre) for 5 min followed by five additional 1-minute exposures. A day later, Pre and Alt-Pre rats received a 2-sec, 1.5 mA footshock immediately upon placement in Context A. Animals included in in situ hybridization were then sacrificed 30 (±3) min later. On day three, the behaviorally-tested Pre rats showed significantly more fear-conditioned freezing in Context A than Alt-Pre rats. Standard context fear conditioning groups showed much greater freezing than the Pre group, as well as no shock and immediate-shock controls. Thirty minutes after immediate shock training, Pre rats showed increased Egr-1 mRNA in the prelimbic mPFC relative to Alt-Pre rats. Standard context conditioning selectively increased Egr-1 in CA1. In the LA and mPFC, Egr-1 increased to a similar extent in no shock, immediate shock, and standard context conditioning relative to homecage controls. The present study demonstrates that Egr-1 mRNA expression has a complex relationship to fear learning in different brain regions and variants of context conditioning.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) block the serotonin (5-HT) reuptake transporter (SERT) and increase synaptic 5-HT. 5-HT is also important in brain development; hence when SSRIs are taken during pregnancy there exists the potential for these drugs to affect CNS ontogeny. Prenatal SSRI exposure has been associated with an increased prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and peripheral 5-HT is elevated in some ASD patients. Perinatal SSRI exposure in rodents has been associated with increased depression and anxiety-like behavior, decreased sociability, and impaired learning in the offspring, behaviors often seen in ASD. The present study investigated whether perinatal exposure to citalopram causes persistent neurobehavioral effects. Gravid Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to two groups and subcutaneously injected twice per day with citalopram (10mg/kg; Cit) or saline (Sal) 6h apart on embryonic day (E)6-21, and then drug was given directly to the pups after delivery from postnatal day (P)1-20. Starting on P60, one male/female from each litter was tested in the Cincinnati water maze (CWM) and open-field before and after MK-801. A second pair from each litter was tested in the Morris water maze (MWM) and open-field before and after (+)-amphetamine. A third pair was tested as follows: elevated zero-maze, open-field, marble burying, prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle, social preference, and forced swim. Cit-exposed rats were impaired in the MWM during acquisition and probe, but not during reversal, shift, or cued trials. Cit-exposed rats also showed increased marble burying, decreased time in the center of the open-field, decreased latency to immobility in forced swim, and increased acoustic startle across prepulse intensities with no effects on CWM. The results are consistent with citalopram inducing several ASD-like effects. The findings add to concerns about use of SSRIs during pregnancy. Further research on different classes of antidepressants, dose-effect relationships, timing of exposure periods, and mechanisms for these effects are needed. It is also important to balance the effects described here against the effects of the disorders for which the drugs are given.

Neonatal alcohol exposure impairs cognition and learning in adulthood and permanently damages the hippocampus. Wheel running (WR) improves hippocampus-associated learning and memory and increases the genesis and survival of newly generated neurons in the hippocampal dentate gyrus. WR significantly increases proliferation of newly generated dentate granule cells in alcohol-exposed (AE) and control rats on Postnatal Day (PD) 42 but only control rats show an increased number of surviving cells thirty days after WR (Helfer et al., 2009b). The present studies examined whether proliferation-promoting WR followed by survival-enhancing environmental complexity (EC) during adolescence could increase survival of new neurons in AE rats. On PD4–9, pups were intubated with alcohol in a binge-like manner (5.25g/kg/day, AE), were sham-intubated (SI), or were reared normally (suckle control, SC). On PD30 animals were assigned to WR (PD30–42) followed by EC (PD42–72; WR/EC) or were socially housed (SH/SH) for the duration of the experiment. All animals were injected with 200 mg/kg BrdU on PD41. In Experiment 1, survival of newly generated cells was significantly enhanced in the AE-WR/EC group in comparison with AE-SH/SH group. Experiment 2A examined trace eyeblink conditioning. In the SH/SH condition, AE impaired trace eyeblink conditioning relative to SI and SC controls. In the WR/EC condition, AE rats performed as well as controls. In Experiment 2B, the same intervention was examined using the context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE); a hippocampus-dependent variant of contextual fear conditioning. Again, the WR/EC intervention reversed the deficit in conditioned fear to the context that was evident in the SH/SH condition. Post-weaning environmental manipulations promote cell survival and reverse learning deficits in rats that were exposed to alcohol during development. These manipulations may provide a basis for developing interventions that ameliorate learning impairments associated with human fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

The context preexposure facilitation effect (CPFE) is a variant of context fear conditioning in which context preexposure facilitates conditioning to immediate foot shock. Learning about context (preexposure), associating the context with shock (training), and expression of context fear (testing) occur in successive phases of the protocol. The CPFE develops postnatally, depends on hippocampal NMDA receptor function, and is highly sensitive to neonatal alcohol exposure during the weanling/juvenile period of development (Murawski and Stanton, 2011; Schiffino et al., 2011). The present study examined some behavioral and pharmacological mechanisms through which neonatal alcohol impairs the CPFE in juvenile rats. We found that a 5-minute context preexposure plus five 1-minute preexposures greatly increases the levels of conditioned freezing compared to a single five- minute exposure or to five 1-minute preexposures (Experiment 1). Increasing conditioned freezing with the multiple- exposure CPFE protocol does not alter the neonatal alcohol-induced deficit in the CPFE (Experiment 2). Finally, systemic administration of 0.01 mg/kg physostigmine prior to all three phases of the CPFE reverses this ethanol-induced deficit. These findings show that impairment of the CPFE by neonatal alcohol is not confined to behavioral protocols that produce low levels of conditioned freezing. They also support recent evidence that this impairment reflects a disruption of cholinergic function (Monk et al., 2012).