Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 28, 2025
Palatable Western-style Cafeteria Diet as a Reliable Method for Modeling Diet-induced Obesity in Rodents
Published on: November 1, 2019
Early postnatal exposure to a cafeteria diet interferes with recency and spatial memory, but not open field
Janina Wait1, Catherine Burns1, Taylor Jones1
1School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Loughborough, UK.
Insights
Maternal exposure to a cafeteria diet (CD) during lactation impairs object location and recency memory in adolescent rats. This Western diet model suggests potential negative impacts on cognitive development and links to the human obesity epidemic.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Nutritional Science
Background:
- The Western diet, characterized by high fat and sugar, is linked to cognitive deficits in adults.
- The early-life lactational period is a critical window for brain development and may be susceptible to dietary influences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of maternal cafeteria diet (CD) exposure during lactation on the cognitive functions of adolescent offspring.
- To assess impacts on open field habituation, object location (OL) learning, and recency learning.
Main Methods:
- Offspring of rats fed either a CD or control diet (C) during lactation were tested at 24-26 days old.
- Cognitive assessments included open field habituation, OL learning with varying inter-trial intervals (ITIs), and recency learning.
Main Results:
- Maternal CD exposure impaired both object location (OL) and recency memory in offspring.
- No significant impact on habituation learning was observed.
- Significant differences in exploration ratios were noted between control and CD groups.
Conclusions:
- Exposure to an obesogenic Western diet during lactation has detrimental effects on adolescent rat cognitive functions, specifically memory.
- These findings highlight the vulnerability of early-life brain development to poor nutrition and have implications for human cognitive health amidst the obesity epidemic.
Abstract:
The cafeteria diet (CD), an experimental diet that mimics the obesogenic Western diet, can impair memory in adult rats. However, the suckling period is also particularly susceptible to diet-induced behavioural modification. Here, following exposure to CD feeding during lactation, 24- to 26-day-old offspring were tested to determine maternal dietary effects on either open field habituation, object location (OL) learning or on recency learning. Whereas no impact on habituation learning could be demonstrated, both OL and recency memory were impaired. In controls (C), OL memory was shown both after a 5 min (p < .05) or 60 min (p < .001) inter-trial interval (ITI). After the 60 min ITI, the difference between C and CD was significant (p < .05). Learning did not occur in the CD group at any time point and was not observed after the 24hr ITI in in either group. Whereas control rats demonstrated intact recency memory (p < .00001), no learning occurred in the CD group. Both groups differed significantly in their exploration ratios (p < .01). This study suggests a detrimental effect of exposure to an unhealthy Western diet during lactation, on cognitive functions in adolescent rats. These results could have implications for human cognition in the context of obesity epidemic.
