"Infantile stimulation" in rodents: A consideration of possible mechanisms.

Russell, Phil

doi:10.1037/h0030426

Cited by 94 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Since it has been shown that additional handling given to the handled group in Experiment I had no significant effect on the Hebb-Williams maze performance, it is possible that "handling" supplied by the mother is qualitatively, and perhaps even quantitatively, different from additional handling provided by an experimenter. Such an explanation, although not based on direct empirical evidence, is consistent with the propositions made by Russell (1971) and is also in agreement with the general findings reported by Allin and Banks (1972), Stern and MacKinnon (1978) and Villescas, Bell, Wright, and Knufner (1977).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Effects of preweaning environmental enrichment on later problem-solving behavior in rats

Ivinskis

Homewood

1980

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Two experiments investigated the importance of visual sensory modality in mediating enriched environmental effects during the preweaning period, and the importance of onset and duration of the enriched experience during the same period. Rat mothers and pups were exposed together in an enriched environment for either 7 or 11 days at different periods from Day 1 to Day 21. Also included was a group of rats which received only handling from Day 11 to Day 21 postpartum and another group in which the mothers were exposed to the enriched environment during the last trimester of pregnancy. Some rats were tested at 27 days of age, and others were tested at 64 days of age in the Hebb-Williams maze test. It was found that exposure in the enriched environment for a period of 7 days before the eyes opened improved rats' problem-solving behavior above that of control rats and to the level of rats which received such experience after the eyes had opened. Handling of rats did not improve problem-solving behavior, nor did exposure during the gestation period. It was concluded that vision is not the most important factor in mediating effects during the preweaning period, since improvement in problem-solving behavior can occur before the visual system is fully developed. It was suggested that the beneficial enrichment effects might be mediated by the mother, who, in some way, transmits additional stimulation to the infant rat during this early stage of development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Effects of preweaning environmental enrichment on later problem-solving behavior in rats

Ivinskis

Homewood

1980

Animal Learning & Behavior

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“…The exact timing of a stressor, the regimen of exposure, and the resulting maternal behavior elicited by early life manipulations seem to play a critical role in determining long-term outcomes (Denenberg and Bell, 1960;Denenberg and Zarrow, 1971;Levine and Lewis, 1959;Nunez et al, 1996;Ogawa et al, 1994;Russell, 1971). For example, manipulations during the first week of life have different effects on maternal behavior and limbic-hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis development from manipulations in the second week of life Ader, 1969, 1974;Levine and Lewis, 1959;Meaney and Aitken, 1985;Reisbick et al, 1975).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manipulations During the Second, but not the First, Week of Life Increase Susceptibility to Cocaine Self-Administration in Female Rats

Flagel

Vázquez

Robinson

2003

Neuropsychopharmacol

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We compared the effects of manipulations during week 1 vs week 2 of life on the propensity to self-administer cocaine. Pups received daily subcutaneous saline injections, were handled briefly, or remained undisturbed during their respective treatment periods. Animals handled during the second week of life exhibited increased locomotor response to novelty when tested on postnatal day (PND) 48, compared to all other groups. Rats were implanted with jugular catheters on PND 70 and then given the opportunity to self-administer (0.125 mg/kg/infusion) cocaine for 5 consecutive days (1 h sessions). The dose was then raised to 0.25 mg/kg/infusion for 5 days and to 0.5 mg/kg/infusion for the final 5 days of testing. Only animals manipulated during the second week of life acquired drug-taking behavior. These effects were both stimulus-and gender-specific. Females handled during the second week of life acquired cocaine selfadministration (SA) at the lowest dose, and females injected during the second week of life acquired at the intermediate dose. Males injected during the second week of life showed a similar, but more variable, drug-taking pattern. There were no group differences in serum corticosterone response to novelty, although relative to undisturbed animals and those manipulated in the first week of life, female animals manipulated during the second week of life had lower basal expression of hippocampal glucocorticoid receptor mRNA in adulthood. We conclude that the second week of life in the rodent is a sensitive period during which manipulations result in a more vulnerable phenotype for the acquisition of cocaine SA.

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“…8 and 9). When taken to the extreme, this view would directly contradict the stress-activation hypothesis (10,11), which states that the nonmaternal environment has a direct effect on the offspring by activating some aspects of the offspring's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. In contrast, the "maternal modulation view" incorporates the stressactivation hypothesis and assumes that the nonmaternal environment first activates aspects of the HPA axis, and the mother then modulates this effect (12).…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Maternal modulation of novelty effects on physical development

Tang

Yang²,

Reeb‐Sutherland³

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Familiarity to the mother and the novelty afforded by the postnatal environment are two contrasting sources of neonatal influence. One hypothesis regarding their relationship is the maternal modulation hypothesis, which predicts that the same neonatal stimulation may have different effects depending on the maternal context. Here we tested this hypothesis using physical development, indexed by body weight, as an endpoint and found that, among offspring of mothers with a high initial swim-stress-induced corticosterone (CORT) response, neonatal novelty exposure induced an enhancement in early growth, and among offspring with mothers of a low initial CORT response, the same neonatal stimulation induced an impairment. At an older age, a novelty-induced increase in body weight was also found among offspring of mothers with high postnatal care reliability and a novelty-induced reduction found among offspring of mothers with low care reliability. These results support a maternal modulation of early stimulation effects on physical development and demonstrate that the maternal influence originates from multiple instead of any singular sources. These results (i) significantly extend the findings of maternal modulation from the domain of cognitive development to the domain of physical development; (ii) offer a unifying explanation for a previously inconsistent literature regarding early stimulation effects on body weight; and (iii) highlight the notion that the early experience effect involves no causal primacy but higher order interactions among the initial triggering events and subsequent events involving a multitude of maternal and nonmaternal influences.maternal stress | maternal care | maternal mediation | developmental plasticity | growth enhancement I t seems self-evident that, for a developing infant, both the maternal and nonmaternal environment affects his or her development. Over the past century, ample evidence from both human and animal early-experience studies has confirmed this intuition (1-3). What remains challenging is how these two environmental sources interact to jointly influence offspring development (4-7). Emerging from the rodent developmental literature are two alternative views regarding the relation between maternal and nonmaternal influences. The "maternal mediation view" assumes that nonmaternal environment exerts its effect indirectly through its effect on the mother, who in turn affects the offspring (e.g., see refs. 8 and 9). When taken to the extreme, this view would directly contradict the stress-activation hypothesis (10, 11), which states that the nonmaternal environment has a direct effect on the offspring by activating some aspects of the offspring's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function. In contrast, the "maternal modulation view" incorporates the stressactivation hypothesis and assumes that the nonmaternal environment first activates aspects of the HPA axis, and the mother then modulates this effect (12). According to the latter view, the individual mother sets distinct conte...

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"Infantile stimulation" in rodents: A consideration of possible mechanisms.

Cited by 94 publications

References 36 publications

Effects of preweaning environmental enrichment on later problem-solving behavior in rats

Effects of preweaning environmental enrichment on later problem-solving behavior in rats

Manipulations During the Second, but not the First, Week of Life Increase Susceptibility to Cocaine Self-Administration in Female Rats

Maternal modulation of novelty effects on physical development

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