Early life manipulations alter learning and memory in rats

Kosten, Therese A.; Kim, Jeansok J.; Lee, Hongjoo J.

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2012.07.003

Cited by 124 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 213 publications

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“…Early-life stress (i.e., maternal separation) has been shown to enhance aversive amygdala-dependent learning and memory in female, but not male rats [49], [50]. Male and female rats naturally exhibit increased dendritic branching in the basolateral amygdala with development (between PN35-PN90), and stressful experiences (chronic and acute) have been shown to further increase this dendritic remodeling (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant-Caregiver Experiences Alter Telomere Length in the Brain

et al. 2014

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Following adverse childhood experiences, high quality maternal care can protect against accelerated telomere shortening in peripheral cells. It is less clear, however, how telomere length in the brain is influenced by early caregiving experiences. Using rats, we investigated if quality of care (i.e., aversive or nurturing care outside of the homecage) during the first seven days of postnatal (PN) life affected telomere length in the adult brain (PN90) of male and female rats. At PN90, we found that nurturing care outside of the homecage was associated with longer telomeres in the medial prefrontal cortex relative to nurturing care inside the homecage (i.e., normal maternal care) and aversive care outside of the homecage. Further, pups exposed to aversive care outside of the homecage demonstrated longer telomeres in the amygdala relative to pups exposed to nurturing care inside the homecage. These effects were specific to females. No differences in telomere length between caregiving conditions were observed in the ventral hippocampus. Thus, positive and negative early-life experiences result in long-term, sex-specific changes of telomeres in the brain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant-Caregiver Experiences Alter Telomere Length in the Brain

et al. 2014

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“…One of the most well-characterized effects of neonatal handling is a reduction in anxiety-like behavior—commonly interpreted as reduced emotionality (Kosten, Kim, & Lee, 2012; Levine et al, 1967; Meerlo et al, 1999; Núñez et al, 1995; Severino et al, 2004). Neonatal handled rats show increased exploration of the open field, including more time in the center (Caldji et al, 2000; Levine et al, 1967; Madruga, Xavier, Achaval, Sanvitto, & Lucion, 2006; Padoin et al, 2001), and spend more time in the open arm of the elevated plus maze (Kiosterakis, Stamatakis, Diamantopoulou, Fameli, & Stylianopoulou, 2009; Meerlo et al, 1999; Núñez et al, 1995; Severino et al, 2004; Vallée et al, 1997).…”

Section: Neonatal Handling and Anxiety-like Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neonatal handling enhances spatial learning/memory but impairs aversive learning/memory, with the former seen as a positive effect and the latter as a negative effect (Kosten et al, 2012). …”

Section: Neonatal Handling and Learning And Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Neonatal handling: An overview of the positive and negative effects

Raineki

Lucion

Weinberg³

2014

Developmental Psychobiology

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As one of the first rodent models designed to investigate the effects of early-life experiences, the neonatal handling paradigm has helped us better understand how subtle changes in the infant environment can powerfully drive neurodevelopment of the immature brain in typical or atypical trajectories. Here, we review data from more than 50 years demonstrating the compelling effects of neonatal handling on behavior, physiology, and neural function across the lifespan. Moreover, we present data that challenge the classical view of neonatal handling as an animal model that results only in positive/beneficial outcomes. Indeed, the overall goal of this review is to offer the suggestion that the effects of early-life experiences—including neonatal handling—are nuanced rather than unidirectional. Both beneficial and negative outcomes may occur, depending on the parameters of testing, sex of the subject, and neurobehavioral system analyzed.

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“…Combined with the complexity of the different maternal separation models (Nylander and Roman, 2013; Tractenberg et al, 2016), this means that the consideration of pre-weaning rodent stress models and their findings requires more detailed consideration than can be given here. For further information in this field, see recent reviews such as Kosten et al, (2012), Nylander and Roman (2013), and Tractenberg et al, (2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

Watt

Weber

Davies

et al. 2017

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

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Repeated exposure to stress during childhood is associated with increased risk for neuropsychiatric illness, substance use disorders and other behavioral problems in adulthood. However, it is not clear how chronic childhood stress can lead to emergence of such a wide range of symptoms and disorders in later life. One possible explanation lies in stress-induced disruption to the development of specific brain regions associated with executive function and reward processing, deficits in which are common to the disorders promoted by childhood stress. Evidence of aberrations in prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens function following repeated exposure of juvenile (pre- and adolescent) organisms to a variety of different stressors would account not only for the similarity in symptoms across the wide range of childhood stress-associated mental illnesses, but also their persistence into adulthood in the absence of further stress. Therefore, the goal of this review is to evaluate the current knowledge regarding disruption to executive function and reward processing in adult animals or humans exposed to chronic stress over the juvenile period, and the underlying neurobiology, with particular emphasis on the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. First, the role of these brain regions in mediating executive function and reward processing is highlighted. Second, the neurobehavioral development of these systems is discussed to illustrate how juvenile stress may exert long-lasting effects on prefrontal cortex-accumbal activity and related behavioral functions. Finally, a critical review of current animal and human findings is presented, which strongly supports the supposition that exposure to chronic stress (particularly social aggression and isolation in animal studies) in the juvenile period produces impairments in executive function in adulthood, especially in working memory and inhibitory control. Chronic juvenile stress also results in aberrations to reward processing and seeking, with increased sensitivity to drugs of abuse particularly noted in animal models, which is in line with greater incidence of substance use disorders seen in clinical studies. These consequences are potentially mediated by monoamine and glutamatergic dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, providing translatable therapeutic targets. However, the predominant use of male subjects and social-based stressors in preclinical studies points to a clear need for determining how both sex differences and stressor heterogeneity may differentially contribute to stress-induced changes to substrates mediating executive function and reward processing, before the impact of chronic juvenile stress in promoting adult psychopathology can be fully understood.

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Early life manipulations alter learning and memory in rats

Cited by 124 publications

References 213 publications

Infant-Caregiver Experiences Alter Telomere Length in the Brain

Infant-Caregiver Experiences Alter Telomere Length in the Brain

Neonatal handling: An overview of the positive and negative effects

Impact of juvenile chronic stress on adult cortico-accumbal function: Implications for cognition and addiction

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