Manipulation of the Pre- and Post-Weaning Social Environment and its Effects on Prepulse Inhibition of the Acoustic Startle Response in C57BL/6
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Jeremy D. Bailoo (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- George Michel
Abstract: Pre-pulse inhibition (PPI) is a tool that may be used to identify how early life stress can result in a deficient adult nervous system (as represented by a deficit in sensorimotor gating). Since both animals and humans demonstrate a PPI, animal research on PPI can be used to model the relation of the early social environment to later susceptibility to maladaptive adult behavioral phenotypes. The current study examined the effect on adult PPI of early life stress in C57BL/6 offspring reared under four social conditions: Animal-Facility Reared (Control), Early Handling (EH, daily 15 min separation), Maternal Separation (MS, daily 4 hr. separation from dam) and Maternal Peer Separation (MPS, daily 4 hr. separation from dam and of littermates); and two post weaning housing conditions: Socially Housed (SH, 2-3 individuals/cage) and Social Isolation (IH, 1 individual/cage). Four different PPI types; 0, 76, 80, or 84 dB; each 20ms duration, and a startle stimulus of 120 dB, 40ms duration, were presented and the percentage reduction of the startle response that occurred with a prepulse in comparison to the startle response that occurred without a prepulse (i.e., 0 dB prepulse) was calculated. The results indicated that EH subjects displayed lower levels of PPI and ASR than AFR, MS & MPS offspring. The post weaning manipulation did not affect display of PPI or the ASR. Consistent with the human and animal literature, male mice displayed a greater ASR and PPI of the ASR than females.
Manipulation of the Pre- and Post-Weaning Social Environment and its Effects on Prepulse Inhibition of the Acoustic Startle Response in C57BL/6
PDF (Portable Document Format)
608 KB
Created on 12/1/2008
Views: 1990
Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2008
- Keywords
- Prepulse Inhibition, Acoustic Startle Response, Maternal Separation, Maternal Peer Separation, Early Deprivation, Early Handling, Social Isolation, C57BL/6