Early amygdala damage in the rat as a model for neurodevelopmental psychopathological disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders in medial temporal lobe structures may underlie psychopathological diseases such as schizophrenia and autism. To construct an animal model for these developmental disorders, social and non-social behavioural responses were assessed in rats with ibotenic acid lesions of the (baso-)lateral and central amygdala or ventral hippocampus, induced early in life. Lesioning the amygdala on day 7 after birth resulted in a variety of behavioural disturbances later in life, whereas after similar lesions on day 21 after birth no disturbances developed, except for deficits in social behaviours. Lesioning the hippocampus led to much less disturbances. The results show that amygdala and hippocampus damage at a specific point early in life results in enduring behavioural disturbances that become more manifest after puberty. In particular, lesions of the amygdala on day 7 of life may serve as a rat model with face and construct validity for neurodevelopmental disorders in studying psychopathology.