Following destruction of the septal area, normally docile albino mice show an increase in emotionality characterized by persistent attempts to escape capture and vigorous biting when restrained. This change in emotional status appears to be permanent and is not seen following lesions of other forebrain structures in the mouse. The results are discussed in relation to the effects on emotionality of septal lesions in other species.
As nurslings, rat pups reared in large litters showed reduced frequencies of returns to their nest from other parts of the home cage and reached maximum levels of nest returns at older ages than control animals from small litters. These differences were not due to differences in activity level or attraction to the nest but appeared to be perceptual in nature. As adults, animals from large litters showed deficits in learning the 1st 2 problems in a series of visual discriminations in a modified version of the Lashley jumping stand technique in which food reinforcement was not used. The deficits were confined to male animals only and were the result of stronger position habits in the early part of training, rather than an inability to make the discriminations. A comparison of these results with those obtained when other methods of stunting animals are employed revealed that different methods of stunting may result in both common and divergent effects on behavior. One long-term consequence of large litter rearing appears to be increased emotional response to noval situations.
The maternal care received by rat pups malnourished by being rotated between lactating females and nonlactating foster mothers was examined. During the 1st 2 weeks after birth there were no differences in maternal care, but during the 3rd week females caring for pups fed only 8 hr daily nursed more and built better nests than females caring for pups fed 16 or 24 hr. These differences in maternal care may interact with and diminish any effects of nutritional deprivation in the pups.
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