title: Prenatal malnutrition leads to deficits in attentional set shifting and decreases metabolic activity in prefrontal subregions that control executive function.
abstract: Globally, over 25% of all children under the age of 5 years experience malnutrition leading to cognitive and emotional impairments that can persist into adulthood and beyond. We use a rodent model to determine the impact of prenatal protein malnutrition on executive functions in an attentional set-shifting task and metabolic activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC) subregions critical to these behaviors. Long-Evans dams were provided with a low (6% casein) or adequate (25% casein) protein diet 5 weeks before mating and during pregnancy. At birth, the litters were culled to 8 pups and fostered to control dams on the 25% casein diet. At postnatal day 90, prenatally malnourished rats were less able to shift attentional set and reverse reward contingencies than controls, demonstrating cognitive rigidity. Naive same-sexed littermates were assessed for regional brain activity using the metabolic marker (14)C-2-deoxyglucose (2DG). The prenatally malnourished rats had lower metabolic activity than controls in prelimbic, infralimbic, anterior cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortices, but had comparable activity in the nearby piriform cortex and superior colliculus. This study demonstrates that prenatal protein malnutrition in a well-described animal model produces cognitive deficits in tests of attentional set shifting and reversal learning, similar to findings of cognitive inflexibility reported in humans exposed to early childhood malnutrition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, N.H., USA.
authors.forename: Jill A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McGaughy
authors.forename: Ana C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.forename: R Jarrett
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Rushmore
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mokler
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Morgane
authors.forename: Douglas L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Rosene
authors.forename: Janina R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Galler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D003847:Deoxyglucose; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D048070:Fetal Nutrition Disorders; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D003847:Deoxyglucose