Influence of postnatal hypoxia on learning and memory formation of adult rats.
Male Wistar rats were exposed to a single normobaric hypoxic treatment at the age of either 15 or 20 days. Two different kinds of hypoxia were used: 4% O2 for 6 h or 3.5% O2 for 40 min. At the age of 8 weeks the acquisition and retention of a brightness discrimination was investigated in all animals. The acquisition of all treated animals did not differ from the corresponding controls. Both hypoxic treatments at the 20th day resulted in a significant improvement of retention in the adult age, whereas only hypoxia with 3.5% O2 for 40 min at the 15th day showed a similar effect, the treatment with 4% O2 for 6 h at this time was ineffective.
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000503:physiopathology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000209:etiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains