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Biomedical subjects

V H Denenberg

Publications and source records attributed to V H Denenberg.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Infantile stimulation induces brain lateralization in rats.

The hypothesis tested was that the effects of early experiences are asymmetrically distributed in the two brain hemispheres. Litters were either handled or not handled between birth and weaning, and the weanlings were reared in either laboratory cages or enriched environments between 21 and 50 days. When approximately 135 days old, animals within each of the four treatment groups had a right neocortical ablation, a left neocortical ablation, a sham operation, or no surgery. About 1 month later, all animals were given the open-field test for emotionality and exploratory behavior. Ablating either the right or left neocortex increased the activity scores of nonhandled controls, but there was no evidence of lateralization. However, the groups handled in infancy did show lateralization. Ablating the left brain did not significantly increase activity, but ablating the right brain caused extreme scores: handled rats without enrichment experience were the most active, and handled rats also placed into the enriched environment had near-zero scores in the open field.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Body and organ growth in the newborn rat.

Body and organ growth were described in rat pups 1 h and 10 days of age. Several organs (e.g., brain and pineal gland) exhibited significant growth in 1-hour-old but not in 10-day-old rats. Further, organs such as the testis and liver showed significant growth in 10-day-old but not 1-hour-old pups. 11 h of exposure to a warming oven, devoid of maternal and nutritional input, significantly influenced the body and organ growth of both newborn and 10-day-old pups. These data show that the first 12 h of life is an active period of growth for the rat.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Handling rabbits in infancy: in search of a critical period.

In Experiment 1 rabbits were handled for the first 10 days of life while controls were not disturbed. In Experiment 2 rabbits were handled on Days 11-20. In Experiment 3 rabbits were handled on Days 1-10, 11-20, 1-20, or were not handled. Starting at 31 days the animals were given an open-field test, a test for exploratory behavior toward novel stimuli, and a test of social behavior. The data were not consistent with the critical period concept. Instead, handling during the first and second 10-day intervals appears to be additive and to approximate the effects of 20 days of handling.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

The effects of litter size on plasma corticosterone and prolactin response to ether stress in the lactating rat.

Lactating female rats reared litters consisting of 4, 8 or 12 pups. At weaning (21 days) females were removed from their maternity cages and exposed to a 1-min ether stress followed by heart puncture. The animals were then isolated and 14 min after the termination of ether stress blood was collected by decapitation. Plasma prolactin and corticosterone were assayed in the blood collected from heart puncture, and in the 14-min stress blood. Boer stress showed a significant linear increase with increasing litter size. The 14-min values of corticosterone were inversely related to litter size. The results are consistent with a prolactinmediated 'buffering' of the corticosterone stress response in the lactating rat.

Animals↗