Nonmonotonic age changes in susceptibility to hypothermia-induced retrograde amnesia in rats

The effects of post-training and/or pretesting body cooling on retention of Pavlovian discriminated fear conditioning were examined in preweanling (16-day) and weanling (23-day) rats. Twenty-four retention was assessed in 16- and 23-day-old rats receiving hypothermia after training, after training and prior to testing, or at neither time. Amnesia was present in the preweanling but not weanling rats. Recovery from amnesia was not observed in the preweanling rats followed a second cooling treatment. Control groups indicated the differential amnesia was not the result of differences in 24 hr baseline retention, depth of hypothermia cooling, rate of recovery from hypothermia treatment, or body temperature immediately post-testing. The results are discussed with respect to current views of infantile amnesia and the growing evidence for similar nonmonotonic functions during ontogeny.