Related Experiment Videos
Neonatal conditioning for adult respiratory behavior
1Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 111j(w), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. kps@po.cwru.edu
Insights
Neonatal sleep interruption in rats increases later respiratory pauses (apneas). This learned apnea behavior can be reduced by white noise or abolished by anesthesia, showing brainstem plasticity.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Respiratory Physiology
Background:
- Neonatal challenges can cause lasting physiological and behavioral changes.
- Respiratory control is known to be affected by early-life experiences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the long-term effects of neonatal sleep interruption on respiratory control in rats.
- To determine if learned apneic breathing patterns in adulthood can be modified.
Main Methods:
- Rats underwent intermittent sleep interruption during the first 4 weeks of life.
- Respiratory pauses (apneas) were quantified 10-12 weeks later.
- Adult rats were exposed to white noise or barbiturate anesthesia to assess apnea modification.
Main Results:
- Neonatal sleep interruption significantly increased the number of respiratory pauses in adult rats.
- White noise reduced, and barbiturate anesthesia abolished, the conditioned apneic breathing.
- These findings demonstrate experience-dependent plasticity in the neonatal respiratory control system.
Conclusions:
- Early-life experience, specifically sleep interruption, can induce long-term changes in respiratory control.
- The brainstem's respiratory system exhibits developmental plasticity in neonates.
- Behavioral interventions like white noise can modify acquired apneic breathing patterns in adulthood.
Abstract:
Specific challenges and perturbations presented during certain 'sensitive periods' of neonatal life have been shown to modify the structure and function of several physiological systems in such as way as to produce long-term and often permanent changes in the behavioral expression of the system. These same phenomena have been reported in a few studies of respiratory control. We have shown that a conditioning paradigm of intermittent sleep interruption presented during the first 4 weeks of life in rats will increase the number of respiratory pauses (apneas > 1 sec in duration) observed in these animals some 10-12 weeks later. Furthermore, in adult conditioned animals, apneic pauses can be dramatically reduced by a counter-conditioning stimulus (white noise), and abolished completely by barbiturate anesthesia. These observations indicate that the respiratory control system in the brainstem of the neonate contains a degree of developmental plasticity which is experience-dependent and modifiable, and that the adult expression of acquired apneic breathing patterns can be effectively reduced by behavioral methods.