Cerebral dopamine, apomorphine and oral activity in the neonatal pig

Neonatal piglets in which oral stimulation associated with feeding was reduced by intragastric tube feeding displayed an increase in stereotyped snout rubbing, licking and chewing behaviour. An investigation of a possible neurochemical basis for this behaviour was made by using sensitive radioenzymatic and microfluorimetric assays to estimate the concentrations of the catecholamines and of the dopamine metabolites homovanillic acid (HVA) and 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-acetic acid (DOPAC) in different brain regions. These observations revealed that the increased non-nutritive oral activity of such piglets did not appear to be caused by an increased release of dopamine in the brain, since it was not associated with increases in the concentrations of the acidic metabolites of dopamine in either the caudate nucleus, the putamen, the nucleus accumbens, the olfactory tubercle, the hypothalamus, or the substantia nigra. The only neurochemical changes observed were small decreases in the concentration of HVA in the putamen and the nucleus accumbens. A lack of effect on catecholamine concentrations in any of the six brain regions examined suggested that the environmental manipulation caused no changes in the development of catecholamine-containing nerve endings. Subcutaneous injection of apomorphine was found to increase the non-nutritive oral activity of piglets. Apparent conditioning effects of the environment on apomorphine-induced stereotyped behaviour however, prevented any satisfactory testing of possible changes in cerebral dopamine receptor sensitivity following reduced oral stimulation.