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Updated: Mar 28, 2026
Author Spotlight: Studying the Impact of Maternal Dietary Deficiencies on Long-Term Offspring Health Outcomes
Published on: June 28, 2024
Dietary choline during periadolescence attenuates cognitive damage caused by neonatal maternal separation in male
Hayarelis Moreno Gudiño1,2, Diamela Carías Picón2, Isabel de Brugada Sauras1
1a Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of behavior , University of Granada , Spain.
Insights
Choline supplementation during periadolescence can mitigate memory deficits caused by neonatal stress in rats. A diet rich in choline improved object and spatial memory in stressed rats.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Nutritional Science
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Choline (Ch) is an essential nutrient vital for cognitive function.
- Choline acts as a cognitive facilitator, particularly during perinatal development.
- Neonatal stress can induce cognitive deficits, impacting memory and learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of a choline-rich diet on memory deficits induced by neonatal stress.
- To determine if choline supplementation can ameliorate cognitive dysfunction following early-life stress.
Main Methods:
- Male rat pups were subjected to maternal separation (MS) or no separation (No-MS) during early postnatal development.
- Rats received deficient, sufficient, or supplemented choline diets during periadolescence (postnatal days 21-60).
- Memory was assessed using object recognition and place recognition tasks.
Main Results:
- In maternally separated rats, only those fed a supplemented choline diet recognized familiar objects and places after 24 hours.
- Non-separated rats recognized objects regardless of diet, but a choline-deficient diet impaired spatial (place) recognition.
- Choline deficiency specifically impacts spatial memory tasks, while supplementation aids stressed rats.
Conclusions:
- Choline supplementation during periadolescence can significantly attenuate memory deficits induced by neonatal stress.
- Dietary choline plays a crucial role in maintaining cognitive function, especially spatial memory, under conditions of early-life stress.
Objectives:
Choline (Ch) is an essential nutrient that acts as a cognitive facilitator when administered during perinatal periods, and it has been recognised as a 'pharmacological' agent that can ease cognitive dysfunctions provoked by exposure to damaging stimuli during early developmental stages. The aim of the present work is to determine whether providing a diet rich in Ch would reduce the severity of the memory deficit provoked by a neonatal stress episode in male adult rats.
Methods:
The effect of Ch on memory was measured using memory tasks such as object and place recognition. Ontogenetic manipulations were conducted during two sensitive developmental periods. During the first post-natal (PN) 14 days, only the male rat pups were selected and half of them were separated from the mother, group maternal separation (MS). Subsequently, during periadolescence (PN 21-60), the rats were exposed to a deficient (DEF = 0 g/kg Ch chloride), sufficient (CON = 1.1 g/kg Ch chloride), or supplemented (SUP = 5 g/kg Ch chloride) diets for this nutrient.
Results:
The results indicated that for group MS, only rats fed with the SUP diet were able to recognise the familiar object and place that had been experienced 24 hours before, unlike groups DEF and CON. In addition, whereas rats in the non-separated group (No-MS) recognised the object independently of the diet, only rats that received a DEF diet failed to recognise the place, showing that a Ch deficit affects spatial memory tasks.
Discussion:
These results show that Ch supplementation during periadolescence can attenuate the memory deficit provoked by extended neonatal stress.
