Malnutrition and environmental stimulation in rats: wave latencies of the brainstem auditory evoked potentials

It has been shown that environmental stimulation may reduce the damage caused by malnutrition to morphological and behavioural parameters; however, there are no data on the effects of stimulation on the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials (BAEPs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of protein malnutrition, nutritional recovery and environmental stimulation on the BAEPs of the rat. On the first day of life, the animals were divided into Well-nourished (W) and Malnourished (M) groups. At weaning, half the M rats were submitted to nutritional recovery (R) until the test day. All groups were subdivided into Stimulated (S) and Non-Stimulated (N) rats. BAEPs was tested in animals exposed to clicks of 90, 80 and 70 dB of intensity. The BAEPs latencies of waves I, II, III and IV in the left ear were analysed in independent groups of rats on the 14th, 18th, 22nd, 32nd, and 42nd days of age. Statistical analysis showed diet and environmental stimulation interaction on the latencies of waves I, II, III and IV at all tested ages. WN rats showed longer latencies of waves I, II, III and IV than WS rats, and MN rats also showed longer latencies of these waves compared to WN, MS and RN at all tested ages. The results showed that malnutrition caused a delay in the latency of all BAEPs waves in rats of all ages. However, environmental stimulation reduced these latencies, reversing some damage caused by malnutrition. These data suggest that the auditory brainstem pathway is vulnerable to nutritional insults, and its structures show plasticity with environmental stimulation.