The compensatory role of food‐motivation in the maze learning performance of lactationally undernourished rats

Katz, Hillary B.; Rosett, Robert E.; Ostwald, Rosemarie

doi:10.1002/dev.420120405

Cited by 18 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Yet, the most important source of bias in all the experimental studies performed to date to evaluate the cognitive capacities of previously malnourished animals is the fact that they have relied on the use of learning paradigms that contain a stressful component or utilise food as positive reinforcer 16 . This is of particular concern because it is well established that early malnutrition leads to increased anxiety and sensitivity to aversive or painful stimuli 17 18 and to enhanced motivation for food 19 20 .…”

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confidence: 99%

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis

Pérez-García

Guzmán-Quevedo

Aragão

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that malnutrition during in utero development and/or childhood induces long-lasting learning disabilities and enhanced susceptibility to develop psychiatric disorders. However, animal studies aimed to address this question have yielded inconsistent results due to the use of learning tasks involving negative or positive reinforces that interfere with the enduring changes in emotional reactivity and motivation produced by in utero and neonatal malnutrition. Consequently, the mechanisms underlying the learning deficits associated with malnutrition in early life remain unknown. Here we implemented a behavioural paradigm based on the combination of the novel object recognition and the novel object location tasks to define the impact of early protein-restriction on the behavioural, cellular and molecular basis of memory processing. Adult rats born to dams fed a low-protein diet during pregnancy and lactation, exhibited impaired encoding and consolidation of memory resulting from impaired pattern separation. This learning deficit was associated with reduced production of newly born hippocampal neurons and down regulation of BDNF gene expression. These data sustain the existence of a causal relationship between early malnutrition and impaired learning in adulthood and show that decreased adult neurogenesis is associated to the cognitive deficits induced by childhood exposure to poor nutrition.

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confidence: 99%

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis

Pérez-García

Guzmán-Quevedo

Aragão

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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“…From 17 to 26 weeks rats were subjected to tests of social behaviour (Whatson & Smart, 1978), operant conditioning (Smart et al 1973) and maze-running (Katz et al 1979). They were housed singly from 17 weeks till they were killed at 32 weeks.…”

Section: A N I M a L S A N D M E T H O D Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Growth and development of rats artificially reared on a high or a low plane of nutrition

1983

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1. In order to exclude the possibility of differences in maternal care which are known to result from typical methods of undernutrition during the suckling period, rat pups were reared artificially on different planes of nutrition away from their mothers.2. Artificial rearing was accomplished by fitting infant rats with a gastric cannula through which a milk substitute was infused intermittently. Rats were fed thus from 4 to 21 d on a high (ARHI) or a low (ARLO; 44%of ARHI level) plane of nutrition. Underfeeding of the ARLO group was continued till 25 d, after which all rats were given a good-quality pelleted diet nd lib. 3. Compared with mother-reared (MR) litter-mates, ARHI rats showed advanced eye-opening and, at 21 and 25 d, they resisted restraint more strongly.4. Growth in body-weight of ARHI and MR rats was similar but, when autopsied at 32 weeks, the ARHI rats were shorter (nose-rump length) and had lighter gastrocnemius muscles, adrenals and brains, but heavier epididymal-fat pads.5. ARLO rats had deficits at 32 weeks compared with ARHI rats in whole body, kidney and epididymal-fat-pad weights, and in tibia length.6. In a second experiment, ARHI and MR rats were killed at 21 d. All the differences found at 32 weeks were already present at 21 d. In addition, the ARHI pups had enlarged livers and intestines but shorter tibias.7. The milk substitute, which is one commonly used in such studies, has a low protein and high carbohydrate content compared with rats' milk. This difference probably caused the abnormal organ growth of ARHI rats.

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“…Measurements of problem-solving performance have tended to parallel the physical findings of this study in that both show that the responses of previously undernourished and control rats to differential environments are similar (Tanabe, 1972;Wells et al, 1972). If it is true that the effects of environmental complexity involve memory consolidation and storage (Rosenzweig & Bennett, 1972), then these findings need to be reconciled with the fact that animals Undernourished early in life show lasting deficits in what they learn about their surroundings when not motivated to do so by primary needs (Goldberger, Ausman, & Boelkins, 1980;Katz, Rosett, & Ostwald, 1979;Stephens, Tonkiss, & Wearden, 1982). Since incidental learning is likely t o be the predominant mode of learning in enriched conditions, where food and water are freely available, it would appear from our results that there must have been a surplus opportunity for the undernourished animals to learn about the complex environments or that mechanisms other than memory, perhaps stress (Uphouse, 1980) or arousal (Walsh & Cummins, 1975), contributed substantially to the effects of enrichment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The separate and combined effects of early undernutrition and environmental complexity at different ages on cerebral measures in rats

Katz

Davies

1983

Developmental Psychobiology

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Rats were either undernourished or fed normally during the suckling period, then at 1 and 5 months of age littermates were housed in enriched or impoverished environments for 30 days. The undernutrition caused lasting reductions in the weight and size of the cerebrum and in parameters of the hippocampus, but significant deficits were not observed in the thickness and area of the occipital cortex. Differential housing differed from early undernutrition in that its largest effects were on cortical parameters, but the effects of the two conditions did partly overlap. This meant that some nutritionally induced deficits could be modified later by manipulating environmental complexity. The cerebral response of the previously undernourished rats to differential environments was not distinguishable from that of well-fed controls on the basis of the gross anatomical changes that were measured. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the environmental effects in young and mature rats, although the latter's response tended to be somewhat less for most parameters.

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The compensatory role of food‐motivation in the maze learning performance of lactationally undernourished rats

Cited by 18 publications

References 12 publications

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis

Early malnutrition results in long-lasting impairments in pattern-separation for overlapping novel object and novel location memories and reduced hippocampal neurogenesis

Growth and development of rats artificially reared on a high or a low plane of nutrition

The separate and combined effects of early undernutrition and environmental complexity at different ages on cerebral measures in rats

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