Long-term consequences of early experience on adult avoidance learning in female rats: Role of the dopaminergic system

Sex-specific positive and negative consequences of avoidance training during childhood on adult active avoidance learning in mice

“…Pretraining in infants (starting on PND 17) results in a dramatic impairment of adult avoidance learning, i.e., they need more time to change the compartment and to locate the exit to the other compartment compared to non-pretrained adults. This negative outcome of infant TWA training is in striking contrast to findings of similar experiments in rats (pretrained at the same age as our infant mice), which displayed accelerated and improved avoidance learning in adulthood (Schäble et al, 2007; Gruss et al, 2010). The discrepant outcome of infant TWA training may at least in part be due to the less complex synaptic organization in the mouse brain compared to rats, which might not only restrain behavioral flexibility but also limit the potential for learning- and memory-induced synaptic plasticity in the mouse brain (Pellis and Pellis, 1998; Pellis and Iwaniuk, 2000; Whishaw et al, 2001).…”

“…For instance, studies using a (different from the one used in our study) footshock avoidance paradigm reported that male CD-1 mice learn faster and show lower performance variability than females (Farr et al, 1995). This is in contrast to findings of the present and previous studies (Schäble et al, 2007; Gruss et al, 2010), where on average a more homogeneous TWA learning was observed in adult female animals compared to males. A meta-analysis of sex differences in learning and memory functions revealed that sex differences cannot be generalized as they also dependent on a variety of parameters including the rodent strain, age, learning task, and the design of the experimental protocol (Farr et al, 1995; Frick et al, 2000; Jonasson, 2005).…”

“…The present study revealed for both male and female mice that TWA learning is age-dependent and that females (but not males) trained during late-adolescence perform better than the infant and preadolescent group. These findings are in line with results from studies in rats which report an increase of TWA learning during development (Bauer, 1978; Myslivecek and Hassmannova, 1979; Schäble et al, 2007; Gruss et al, 2010). …”

“…A previous study (Schäble et al, 2007) in female rats revealed that infants [postnatal day (PND) 17–21; same age as the infant mice in the present study] are not able to develop a successful avoidance strategy. Nevertheless, as adults these animals, as well as animals, which were pretrained during preadolescence and adolescence all showed accelerated avoidance learning in adulthood compared to non-pretrained adults (Gruss et al, 2010).…”

Behavioral and neural plasticity caused by early social experiences: the case of the honeybee

“…From the most extreme example of imprinting describing the attachment behaviors of geese soon after they hatched (Lorenz, 1935), a great range of sensory and cognitive experiences have been reported to play a role in shaping future behavior in many groups, including humans (Neal, 1972; Cornwell-Jones et al, 1988; Cramer et al, 1988; Gschanes et al, 1998; Matthews and Robbins, 2003; Pryce and Feldon, 2003; Schäble et al, 2007). In the last three decades, the honeybee Apis mellifera has been considered a model within the invertebrates to study the behavioral and neural plasticity caused by early experiences (Masson and Arnold, 1984, 1987; Winnington et al, 1996; Sigg et al, 1997; Farris et al, 2001; Brown et al, 2004).…”