Early handling and latent inhibition in the conditioned suppression paradigm

Latent inhibition (LI) is a behavioral paradigm in which repeated exposure to stimuli not followed by meaningful consequences renders these stimuli ineffective for subsequent learning. The development of LI is considered to reflect learning not to attend, to ignore, or tune out irrelevant stimuli. The present study investigated the differences in the development of LI between handled and nonhandled males and females. Infantile handled (days 1-22) and nonhandled, male and female Wistar rats were tested in maturity in the LI paradigm, using a conditioned emotional response (CER) procedure. The procedure consisted of three stages: preexposure, in which the to-be-conditioned stimulus, tone, was presented without being followed by reinforcement; acquisition, in which the preexposed tone was paired with shock; and test, in which LI was indexed by animals' suppression of licking during tone presentation. Handled animals exhibited less conditioned suppression as compared to nonhandled animals. LI was obtained in both the handled and the nonhandled females, but only the handled males showed the LI effect. Nonhandled males failed to develop LI. These results replicate our previous findings on LI in conditioned avoidance in demonstrating that: the effects of handling are evident in learning tasks that do not involve motivational-emotional variables, i.e., learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli; handling differentially affects males and females; the nonhandling procedure has deleterious consequences on adult behavior.