Early handling effect on female rat spatial and non-spatial learning and memory

• Published in: Behavioural processes Vol. 103; pp. 9 - 16
• Main Authors: Plescia, Fulvio, Marino, Rosa A.M., Navarra, Michele, Gambino, Giuditta, Brancato, Anna, Sardo, Pierangelo, Cannizzaro, Carla
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.03.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: adulthood; adults; animal behavior; Animal ethology; Animals; Behavioral flexibility; Biological and medical sciences; brain; cognition; Cognition - physiology; Declarative memory; Early handling; Female; Female rats; females; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Handling (Psychology); Learning - physiology; long term effects; Maternal Behavior - physiology; Maternal care; Maternal Deprivation; Maze Learning - physiology; memory; Memory - physiology; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; pups; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; stress response; Working memory; Female rats; Maternal care; Declarative memory; Working memory; Early handling; Behavioral flexibility; Rat; Memory; Rodentia; Flexibility; Learning; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Acquisition process; Animal; Female; Behavior
• ISSN: 0376-6357; 1872-8308; 1872-8308
• DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2013.10.011

•Early environmental experience and behavioral reactivity in female rats.•Early handling manipulation interferes positively with the acquisition of declarative memory.•A brief early manipulation induces an improvement in reference and working memory.•Early handling increases maternal care thus ameliorating behavioral flexibility and cognitive performance. This study aims at providing an insight into early handling procedures on learning and memory performance in adult female rats. Early handling procedures were started on post-natal day 2 until 21, and consisted in 15min, daily separations of the dams from their litters. Assessment of declarative memory was carried out in the novel-object recognition task; spatial learning, reference- and working memory were evaluated in the Morris water maze (MWM). Our results indicate that early handling induced an enhancement in: (1) declarative memory, in the object recognition task, both at 1h and 24h intervals; (2) reference memory in the probe test and working memory and behavioral flexibility in the “single-trial and four-trial place learning paradigm” of the MWM. Short-term separation by increasing maternal care causes a dampening in HPA axis response in the pups. A modulated activation of the stress response may help to protect brain structures, involved in cognitive function. In conclusion, this study shows the long-term effects of a brief maternal separation in enhancing object recognition-, spatial reference- and working memory in female rats, remarking the impact of early environmental experiences and the consequent maternal care on the behavioral adaptive mechanisms in adulthood.