Norepinephrine and associative conditioning in the neonatal rat somatosensory system

Neonatal rats, aged postnatal days 3-4, were trained in a somatosensory associative conditioning task involving temporal correlation of facial vibrissa stimulation and aversive shock. This training resulted in a subsequent conditioned behavioral activation/arousal response to vibrissa stimulation alone, compared to non-learning control pups trained with random vibrissa-shock presentations. The acquisition of the conditioned response was blocked by systemic injections of the NE beta-receptor antagonist propranolol in a dose-dependent manner. In a second study, vibrissa stimulation was paired with systemic injections of the NE beta-receptor agonist isoproterenol. Association of vibrissa stimulation with beta-receptor activation resulted in subsequent conditioned responses to vibrissa stimulation alone, in a dose-dependent manner. Together, these results suggest that early associative somatosensory conditioning requires and involves NE in a manner similar to that previously demonstrated for early olfactory learning.