Swimming and self-grooming development of pups nursed by neonatally underfed rats

Swimming and self-grooming development were analyzed in experimental animals nursed by neonatally underfed dams by a method including the deprivation of both food and sensory cues which provoke long-term altered maternal behavior. Experimental animals obtained from these dams manifested a significant retardation in physical growth, as evidenced by a decrease in body weight and a 1-day delay in ear and eye-opening, as well as a significant delay in swimming ability, escaping from the water and an increase in self-grooming behavior. These alterations of experimental animals may be presumably related with the carelessness in maternal care and altered so-matosensory stimulation given by the neonatally underfed dams to her experimental pups. Data suggest that the poor somatosensory stimulation given by the mother to her pups, the reduced early social interaction or the motivational stage of pups may be important determinants for the development of brain mechanisms underlying reflex activity of the progeny.