Behavioral performance of rats following neonatal hypoxia-ischemia.
The behavioral performance of rats subjected in the neonatal period to hypoxia-ischemia at either 37 degrees C or 21 degrees C was compared to that of sham-ligated animals. Performance on complex motor tests was significantly delayed only in the hypoxic-ischemic 37 degrees C rats. However, cognitive testing disclosed significant delay of spatial learning in animals subjected to hypoxia-ischemia at 21 degrees C and those with gross infarction at 37 degrees C. There was enhanced avoidance learning in the animals with gross infarction in the hypoxia-ischemia 37 degrees C group. Hypoxic-ischemic damage in the neonatal rat at 37 degrees C results in transient delay of complex motor skills, but longer lasting cognitive changes. Hypoxia-ischemia during hypothermia produces no motor deficits, although there may be similar alterations in learning.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains