Early undernutrition and later hippocampal damage: Effects on spontaneous behaviors and reversal learning

Laughlin, Nellie K.; Finger, Stanley; Bell, Joanne

doi:10.3758/bf03326806

Cited by 25 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Despite the apparent clarity and coherence of this account for hippocampals, several anomalies remain. It is important to establish the reliability of postoperative deficits for the purpose of constructing theoretical models but also to provide a baseline against which the effects of other variables can be measured, such as the effects of undernutrition on hippocampal development and maturation (Laughlin, Finger & Bell 1984) and the effects of environmental enrichment on recovery of hippocampal function (Dalrymple-Alford & Benton 1984). Yet even in the well-researched area of hippocampal hyperactivity, the extent of the phenomenon in rodents varies considerably.…”

Section: Motor Control and Behavioural Inhibition I Open Field Hypermentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between the superior colliculus and hippocampus: Neural and behavioral considerations

Foreman

Stevens

1987

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Theories of superior collicular and hippocampal function have remarkable similarities. Both structures have been repeatedly implicated in spatial and attentional behaviour and in inhibitory control of locomotion. Moreover, they share certain electrophysiological properties in their single unit responses and in the synchronous appearance and disappearance of slow wave activity. Both are phylogenetically old and the colliculus projects strongly to brainstem nuclei instrumental in the generation of theta rhythm in the hippocampal EECOn the other hand, close inspection of behavioural and electrophysiological data reveals disparities. In particular, hippocampal processing mainly concerns stimulus ambiguity, contextual significance, and spatial relations or other subtle, higher order characteristics. This requires the use of largely preprocessed sensory information and mediation of poststimulus investigation. Although collicular activity must also be integrated with that of “higher” centres (probably to a varying degree, depending on the nature of stimuli being processed and the task requirements), its primary role in attention is more “peripheral” and specific in controlling orienting/localisation via eye and body movements toward egocentrically labelled spatial positions. In addition, the colliculus may exert a nonspecific influence in alerting higher centres to the imminence of information potentially worthy of focal attention. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that collicular and hippocampal lesions produce deficits on similar tasks, although the type of deficit is usually different (often opposite) in each case. Functional overlap between hippocampus and colliculus (i.e., strategically synchronised or mutually interdependent activity) is virtually certain vis-à-vis stimulus sampling, for example in the acquisition of information via vibrissal movements and visual scanning. In addition, insofar as stimulus significance is a factor in collicular orienting mechanisms, the hippocampus — cingulate – cortex — colliculus pathway may play a significant role, modulating collicular responsiveness and thus ensuring an attentional strategy appropriate to current requirements (stimulus familiarity, stage of learning). A tentative “reciprocal loop” model is proposed which bridges physiological and behavioural levels of analysis and which would account for the observed degree and nature of functional overlap between the superior colliculus and hippocampus.

show abstract

Section: Motor Control and Behavioural Inhibition I Open Field Hypermentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between the superior colliculus and hippocampus: Neural and behavioral considerations

Foreman

Stevens

1987

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the other, in which rats with hippocampal lesions were tested on a battery of DRL operant conditioning tasks, undernutrition attenuated the lesion effect (Finger & Green, 1983). The generality of the latter finding was examined in a third study (Laughlin, Finger, & Bell, 1983) in which rats were tested for spontaneous alternation, exploration, and spatial reversal learning. Here nutritional and hippocampal lesion effects were noted, but the two variables were not found to be additive or interactive.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of early protein undernutrition and later frontal cortex damage on habit acquisition and reversallearning in the rat

Silva¹,

Bouzrara²,

Finger³

et al. 1984

Psychobiology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Rats from dams that were undernourished (8% casein diets) during pregnancy and lactation or weH fed (25% casein diets) received frontal corticallesions at maturity. The animals were then tested for the ability to master a simple sensory discrimination and to learn reversals of that discrimination. Main effects of undernutrition and the frontal corticallesion were found in originallearning but not on the reversals, and animals that received both early undernutrition and the later focal brain lesion made more errors in originallearning than did rats that sustained only undernutrition or only the lesion. The suggestion that early nutritional history may be one of a number of factors that can help to explain why patients with seemingly similar brain lesions do not always show identical symptoms is discussed.Subjects who receive lesions of the same brain structures do not always exhibit identical degrees of behavioral impairment (Finger & Stein, 1982). Several factors have now been proposed to account for this variability, which has been observed both with clinical populations and laboratory animals. For example, under some conditions it is known that age at the time of insult can affect the degree of functional sparing (Johnson & Almli, 1978), as can the speed of growth or "momentum" of the lesion (Finger, 1978b). In addition, nonspecific environmental "enrichment" has also been shown to enhance behavioral recovery, at least on simple maze-learning tasks following cortical or hippocampal lesions (Finger, 1978a).A variable that has only recently been explored in this context is the early nutritional history of the sub-[ect. Early undernutrition can affect several indices of brain function, including cellular growth and differentiation and synapse formation and myelination, and it has also been established that some behaviors can be affected if undernutrition is experienced during the period of rapid brain growth (Winick, 1976). These observations may be interpreted to suggest that early undernutrition can also affect recovery from later brain damage-a hypothesis that has now been examined in three recent studies from this laboratory, using the pups of rat dams that had experienced 50010 less food than control dams during the lactation period.The results of two of these studies have shown that early undernutrition can affect performance following a brain lesion later in life, even under conditions in which poor early diet has little or no effect on the scores of rats without focal brain lesions. In one case (Mangold, Bell, Gruenthal, & Finger, 1981), in which rats with posterior corticallesions were tested for the ability to make a brightness discrimination, poor early nutrition retarded recovery following the focal lesion. In the other, in which rats with hippocampal lesions were tested on a battery of DRL operant conditioning tasks, undernutrition attenuated the lesion effect (Finger & Green, 1983). The generality of the latter finding was examined in a third study (Laughlin, Finger, & Bell, 1983) in which rats were...

show abstract

Early Undernutrition and Recovery from Acute Brain Damage Later in Life

Finger¹,

Bouzrara²,

Silva³

1985

Brain Plasticity, Learning, and Memory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early undernutrition and later hippocampal damage: Effects on spontaneous behaviors and reversal learning

Cited by 25 publications

References 28 publications

Relationships between the superior colliculus and hippocampus: Neural and behavioral considerations

Relationships between the superior colliculus and hippocampus: Neural and behavioral considerations

Effects of early protein undernutrition and later frontal cortex damage on habit acquisition and reversallearning in the rat

Early Undernutrition and Recovery from Acute Brain Damage Later in Life

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About