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Maternal separation during a specific postnatal time window prevents reinforcement of hippocampal long-term
1Otto von Guericke University, Institute of Biology, Department of Zoology/Developmental Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany.
Insights
Early-life stress during a specific window (postnatal day 9) impairs adolescent emotional memory reinforcement in rats. This finding aids in developing animal models for studying brain dysfunction linked to early life experiences.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Animal Models
Background:
- Early life experiences, particularly stress, can profoundly impact long-term brain function.
- Understanding the critical developmental windows for stress effects is crucial for identifying risks of brain dysfunction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an animal model for studying the etiology of brain dysfunction related to early life stress.
- To test the hypothesis that early-life stress during specific postnatal periods affects long-term potentiation (LTP) reinforcement in adolescence.
Main Methods:
- Male Wistar rat pups were subjected to maternal separation for 24 hours at postnatal day (PND) 4, 9, or 18.
- Adolescent rats (9 weeks old) were assessed for LTP reinforcement using a 2-minute swim-stress paradigm.
Main Results:
- Maternal separation at PND9, but not PND4 or PND18, significantly impaired emotional LTP reinforcement in adolescent rats.
- This effect was observed in relation to the stress-hyporesponsive period of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.
Conclusions:
- Maternal separation during a specific early postnatal window (PND9) can lead to long-lasting deficits in emotional memory processing.
- This study establishes a novel in vivo animal model for investigating the cellular mechanisms of emotional information processing in adolescents affected by early life stress.
Abstract:
In an attempt to develop an animal model to study the etiology of brain dysfunction in relation to early life experience, we tested the hypothesis that early-life stress during specific postnatal time windows affects long-term potentiation (LTP) reinforcement in adolescence. Male Wistar rat pups were stressed by separation from their dams for 24 h at postnatal day (PND) 4, 9, or 18. The animals were tested for reinforcement of LTP at adolescence (9 weeks old) by exposing them to a 2-min swim-stress. Here, we show that maternal separation during (at PND9) but not at the beginning (at PND4) or after (at PND18) the stress-hyporesponsive-period of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis impairs emotional LTP-reinforcement in adolescent animals. Thus, this in vivo model allows the investigation of physiological and pathophysiological emotional information processing at the cellular level in freely behaving adolescent animals.
