Comparison of maternal separation and early handling in terms of their neurobehavioral effects in aged rats

Julia Lehmann, Christopher R. Pryce, Ana L. Jongen-Rêlo, Thomas Stöhr, Helen H.J. Pothuizen, Joram Feldon*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

95 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the rat, relative to pup nonhandling (NH), early handling (EH) leads to old-adult offspring with a hyporesponsive HPA axis, superior spatial cognition, and greater hippocampal (HIPP) neuronal density. The present study compared the effects of EH and repeated maternal separation (MS), in the form of 6-hr separation on each of 4 days beginning at day 12, on spatial cognition, corticosterone (CORT) levels, and HIPP characteristics, in aged rats. Male Wistar rat pups were exposed to EH, MS, NH or our normal in-house husbandry (CON) and tested at 18-20 months. Relative to NH and CON, EH demonstrated superior spatial cognition, reduced CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. MS demonstrated a trend to superior spatial cognition, an unaffected CORT stress response, reduced CA-field volume and no change in HIPP neuronal number. These findings are important in terms of the life-span mechanisms via which postnatal manipulations induce neurobehavioral effects, and the mechanisms via which CORT and HIPP structure relate to HIPP function.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)457-466
Number of pages10
JournalNeurobiology of Aging
Volume23
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich

    Keywords

    • Corticosterone
    • Early handling
    • Hippocampus
    • Nonhandling
    • Repeated maternal separation
    • Spatial cognition
    • Wistar rat

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Comparison of maternal separation and early handling in terms of their neurobehavioral effects in aged rats'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this