Impact of cafeteria feeding during lactation in the rat on novel object discrimination in the offspring

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that hyperenergetic diets have an impact on memory in rodents. However, it is largely unknown how diets, such as a cafeteria diet (CD), that mimic a Western-type diet act on learning and memory, in particular when fed during early stages of development. Here, we fed lactating dams a CD and exposed both male and female offspring to a novel object discrimination (NOD) task, a two-trial test of recognition memory in which rats exposed to two identical objects during a training/familiarisation trial can discriminate a novel from a familiar object during the subsequent choice trial. The choice trial was performed following inter-trial interval (ITI) delays of up to 4 h. Maternal diet did not have an impact on exploration of the objects by either sex during the familiarisation trial. Control males discriminated the novel from the familiar object, indicating intact memory with an ITI of 1 h, but not 2 or 4 h. The CD delayed this natural forgetting in male rats such that discrimination was also evident after a 2 h ITI. In contrast, control females exhibited discrimination following both 1 and 2 h ITI, but the CD impaired performance. In summary, the present study shows that maternal exposure to the CD programmes NOD in the adult. In better-performing females, dietary programming interferes with NOD, whereas NOD was improved in males after lactational CD feeding.

Exposure to a maternal cafeteria diet changes open‐field behaviour in the developing offspring

“…Cafeteria feeding led to a significant increase of energy intake in lactating dams that was due to overconsumption of sugar and fat, whereas protein intake was reduced. These changes in energy and macronutrient intake are in line with previous data from our laboratories, indicating robustness of the feeding model (Akyol et al, 2012; Wright et al, 2014). This imbalance in lactational diet caused changes in offspring open‐field behaviour and, to a lesser extent, in the elevated plus maze.…”

“…In rodents, cafeteria diets have been shown to change a variety of behaviours, often in a sex‐specific manner (Murphy and Mercer, 2013; Warneke et al, 2014; Wright et al, 2011a, 2014). In a series of experiments, we previously demonstrated that feeding a cafeteria diet during lactation leads to reduced anxiety, but also to changes in satiety and, gender‐ depending, effects on memory in the offspring when tested at adult age (Wright et al, 2011a,b, 2014). Although these results suggest nutritional programming of behaviour, less is known about the more immediate behavioural consequences of early postnatal exposure.…”

A Review of the Impact of Maternal Obesity on the Cognitive Function and Mental Health of the Offspring

“…Feeding schedules are typically initiated before (e.g., pre-pregnancy obesity) or at the start of gestation and/or lactation to distinguish the effects of pre- and peri-natal high fat exposure on brain plasticity and development [20,21]. In most cases, offspring are maintained on a low fat control diet, although some experiments have also fed the offspring the same high fat diet as the mother to determine the effect of sustained high fat diet exposure [22,23,24,25,26].…”

“…This effect was also observed in offspring exposed to a high fat diet throughout both the pre- and postnatal period, who showed decreased retention times, higher escape latencies, and less time spent in the target quadrant of the water maze, suggesting impaired spatial memory performance [22,24,25,26]. Similarly contradictory findings have been described using the novel object recognition task, with one experiment reporting decreased exploration of the novel object in young adult male—but not female—offspring of obese dams [44] and another reporting higher initial novel exploration by male offspring exposed to a cafeteria diet during lactation [21]. Again, these discrepancies may relate to the timing of dietary exposure, sex, and age of offspring at testing.…”

Prenatal, but not early postnatal, exposure to a Western diet improves spatial memory of pigs later in life and is paired with changes in maternal prepartum blood lipid levels

“…While the effects of perinatal dietary fat on cognition have been studied extensively, data about the impact of a perinatal Western diet, which is high in both saturated fat and refined sugars, are scarce and equivocal (11, 12). Yet in our modern Western societies, excessive consumption of fat is frequently associated with the consumption of excessive amounts of sugars (13).…”