Prefrontal cortex aspiration in pups and juvenile rats: behavioural changes and recovery of function.
Male Wistar rats sustaining prefrontal cortex aspiration or sham operation at 6 days or 30 days of age were submitted to the following behavioural tests: open-field, acquisition and retention of two-way active as well as passive avoidance tasks. In the open-field the locomotor activity proved enhanced in all the aspirated animals and this enhancement lasted for 30 days. In the two-day active avoidance task, an acquisition deficit was observed in both aspirated groups; but when retrained one month later, they were able to acquire the avoidance task like sham-operated rats and no difference appeared between the groups aspirated at 6 or at 30 days of age. Concerning the passive avoidance task, no difference could be detected between aspirated and sham-operated animals of both groups except that the rats aspirated at an early age (6 days) seemed to display a better avoidance ability in the retention test. These behavioural alterations (hyperactivity and impairment of the acquisition of the 2-way active avoidance) resulted from the prefrontal cortex aspiration, at whatever age this aspiration was performed (6 days or 30 days). They disappeared after a postoperative recovery period of about one month, as evidenced by this longitudinal study.
Gewiss
M
M
Laboratoire de Psychobiologie, Université Catholique de Louvain.
Eclancher
F
F
Poels
J F
JF
Van Boxel
P
P
De Witte
P
P
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains