Physiological responses of infant rats to separation from their mothers.
Decreases of 40 percent in cardiac and respiratory rates occur during the first 12 to 16 hours after 2-week-old rat pups are separated from their mothers. These rates decrease without significant alteration in activity level and despite maintenance of body temperature, of nutrition by intubation, of an intact litter, and of the home cage nest.
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001831:Body Temperature; D004576:Electromyography; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D006334:Heart Function Tests / Q000295:instrumentation; D006339:Heart Rate; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D008892:Milk; D011603:Psychophysiology; D051381:Rats; D012119:Respiration