Long-term effects of infant learning on adult conditioned odor aversion are determined by the last preweaning experience.
Dev. Psychobiol.. 2009-07-01; 51(5): 389-398
DOI: 10.1002/dev.20378
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1. Dev Psychobiol. 2009 Jul;51(5):389-98. doi: 10.1002/dev.20378.
Long-term effects of infant learning on adult conditioned odor aversion are
determined by the last preweaning experience.
Sevelinges Y(1), Mouly AM, Lévy F, Ferreira G.
Author information:
(1)Laboratoire de Comportement Neurobiologie et Adaptation CNRS UMR6175, INRA
UMR85 Université de Tours, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
We recently showed that odorizing mother’s nipples from birth to weaning
attenuated adult conditioned odor aversion (COA). The present study evaluated
whether shorter durations of preweaning olfactory experiences could induce
similar long-term effects. We first showed that late preweaning odorization
(PN13-PN25) impaired adult COA similarly to odorization from birth to weaning
(PN0-PN25) whereas early odorization (PN0-PN12) had no effect on adult COA. As
early odorization was followed by an odorless suckling period, we evaluated
whether this odorless suckling could have interfered with early associative
learning. We therefore weaned the animals either immediately after early
odorization or 7 days later. Early odorization (PN0-PN18) followed by late
odorless suckling (PN19-PN25) had no effect on adult COA. However, pups with
early odorization (PN0-PN18) but without late odorless suckling (weaned at PN18)
showed attenuated COA. These results support the hypothesis that interference
between early and late preweaning experiences with the mother determines the
long-term impact on adult COA.
DOI: 10.1002/dev.20378
PMID: 19415682 [Indexed for MEDLINE]