Neonatal amygdala lesions affect appetitive motivational and consummatory aspects of social behavior in the rat.
In the present study, rats received amygdala lesions (AMX) on either Postnatal Day 7 (PD 7; immature brain) or PD 21 (almost mature brain), and adult social activity was studied after short-term isolation housing. Sham-operated rats demonstrated increased following and approaching behavior after 7 days of isolation compared with after 4 days of isolation, an effect that was absent in AMX-PD 7 and AMX-PD 21 rats. Furthermore, AMX-PD 7 rats, but not AMX-PD 21 rats, displayed a reduction in investigatory behavior after prolonged isolation. This indicates that in AMX-PD 21 rats, mainly appetitive motivational aspects of social behavior were affected, whereas in AMX-PD 7 rats both motivational and consummatory aspects were disturbed. Finally, the reported deficits in AMX-PD 7 rats may reflect neurodevelopmental deficits of structures connected with the amygdala.
Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Pharmacology and Anatomy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. l.diergaarde@vumc.nl
Leontien
L
Diergaarde
Berry M
BM
Spruijt
Inge G
IG
Wolterink-Donselaar
Mirjam A F M
MA
Gerrits
Jan M
JM
van Ree
D000367:Age Factors; D000679:Amygdala / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003259:Consummatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009498:Neurotoxins / Q000633:toxicity; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012919:Social Behavior
D009498:Neurotoxins