Journal article
Disruption of cerebellar maturation by an antimitotic agent impairs the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in rats
The Journal of neuroscience, Vol.15(11), pp.7301-7314
11/01/1995
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-11-07301.1995
PMCID: PMC6578102
PMID: 7472484
Abstract
This study represents an attempt to establish a relationship between maturation of the cerebellum and the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in the rat. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of disrupting cerebellar maturation by neonatal exposure to the antimitotic agent methylazoxymethanol (MAM) on the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in infant rats. Experiment 1 demonstrated that neonatal exposure to MAM on Postnatal Day 4 (PND4) and 7 severely disrupted cerebellar maturation. This effect appeared to be specific in that there was no overt dysmorphology in other brain regions. MAM treatment also severely disrupted associative eyeblink conditioning in rats given training on PND24 and 25. However, exposure to MAM had no effect on the unconditioned response, T-maze delayed alternation, or conditioned suppression of ongoing behavior. In Experiment 2, MAM was given on PND4 and 7 and pups were tested behaviorally on PND17–18, 20–21, or 31–32. Cerebellar hypoplasia was most dramatic shortly after exposure. The cerebellar cortex continued to mature after exposure to MAM, but development of morphological endpoints examined here were static from PND19 to 33. Eyeblink conditioning was impaired at all ages, indicating that there was no functional recovery following neonatal exposure to MAM over the age range tested. These experiments suggest that normal cerebellar maturation may be important for the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Disruption of cerebellar maturation by an antimitotic agent impairs the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in rats
- Creators
- J H FreemanS BaroneMe Stanton
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Journal of neuroscience, Vol.15(11), pp.7301-7314
- Publisher
- Society for Neuroscience
- DOI
- 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-11-07301.1995
- PMID
- 7472484
- PMCID
- PMC6578102
- ISSN
- 0270-6474
- eISSN
- 1529-2401
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 11/01/1995
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984065862902771
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