title: Reactivity to novelty during youth as a predictive factor of cognitive impairment in the elderly: a longitudinal study in rats.
abstract: A life-span study of certain behavioral traits was conducted in rats. Animals were repeatedly tested in a circular corridor for reactivity to novelty and in a recognition memory task for cognitive abilities. These measures revealed important inter-individual differences in young as well as in old subjects. Some of these differences appear with aging (memory deficits) and others disappear (high reactivity to novelty). Moreover, a relationship between high reactivity to novelty in youth and deficits in memory recognition in elderly was found. Rats that are high-responders to novelty had age-related memory impairments whereas the low-responder rats did not. While the biological mechanism linking these two behavioral traits remains to be demonstrated, this study shows that age-related impairments can be predicted by factors detectable early in life.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychobiologie des Comportements Adaptatifs, INSERM U.259, Université de Bordeaux II, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dellu
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mayo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vallée
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Le Moal
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Simon
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior; D005544:Forecasting; D007206:Individuality; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013997:Time Factors