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Defensive distance and immobility in young precocial birds (Gallus gallus).

The manifestation and duration of the tonic immobility reaction in 3-day-old chicks (Gallus gallus) was found to vary reliably as a function of the spatial proximity between the hand of the experimenter and the immobilized chick. The results of this experiment indicate that young birds are susceptible to immobility and that the maintenance of close spatial proximity is the condition necessary for the occurrence of the reaction in young precocial birds.

Animals

Delayed spontaneous alternation in Purkinje cell degeneration mutant mice.

Purkinje cell degeneration (pcd) mutant mice lose cerebellar Purkinje cells. It was found that pcd mice, contrary to normal mice, did not alternate spontaneously at any of 3 inter-trial intervals (15 s, 3 or 6 min). Deficits in spontaneous alternation are typical of animals with brain damage in areas important in spatial learning. Results are discussed in terms of a role for the cerebellum in spatially mediated behavior and behavioral inhibition.

Animals

Behavioral and biochemical effects of early postnatal cholinergic lesion in the hippocampus.

The effects of early postnatal (PD 8) intracerebroventricular injection of ethylcholine mustard aziridinium ion (AF64A) on development of open-field and cognitive behaviors and cholinergic markers in several brain areas were examined in the rat. The cholinotoxin was bilaterally administered in a dose range of 0.25 to 2.0 nmol. In the open-field tests, the cholinergic lesion caused a dose-dependent increase in activity at 20 days of age, while it resulted in lengthened latency to initiate exploration and decreased rearing activity at adulthood. Hole-board spatial learning was severely inhibited in adult age. The biochemical activity of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the hippocampus was markedly decreased in a dose-dependent manner, but was unchanged in the neocortex and striatum. Histochemical staining of AChE-positive fibers revealed a severe cholinergic denervation of the granular and pyramidal cell layers of the hippocampus. The results showed that a selective cholinergic deafferentation of the hippocampus at a critical stage of development leads to long-lasting abnormal open-field and spatial learning behaviors.

Acetylcholinesterase

Morris water task impairment and hypoactivity following cysteamine-induced reductions of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity.

The effects of cysteamine-induced reductions of somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (SLI) on spatial learning, passive avoidance, and locomotor activity were examined in adult Sprague-Dawley rats. Cysteamine hydrochloride (100 mg/kg, s.c.) produced 54% and 50% reductions in SLI in cortex and hippocampus, respectively, and impaired escape latencies and spatial probe behavior in the Morris water task. Although cysteamine-treated rats displayed hypoactivity in the activity boxes, their swim speed in the Morris water task was unaffected. Cysteamine did not impair passive avoidance retention when administered immediately following training or prior to daily retention testing. These results suggest a role for somatostatin in spatially-mediated behaviors in rats.

Animals

Spatial learning ability of rats undernourished during early postnatal life.

Experiments to determine whether undernutrition during early life results in deficits in spatial learning behavior has produced conflicting results. It was hypothesized that this may be due to the differing degrees of undernutrition used in the various studies, and/or to the timing of the testing procedures with respect to the period of food deprivation. These possibilities were tested by undernourishing rats between birth and 30 days of age to two different levels (i.e., level-1 and level-2). The degree of undernutrition was greater at level-2 than level-1. Behavioral testing of these rats and well-fed controls was carried out in the Morris water maze when they were between either 35 and 65 or 170 and 200 days of age. Statistical analyses of the escape latency data from these experiments revealed that rats tested almost immediately after the period of undernutrition have alterations in their spatial learning behavior compared with controls. However, even a short period of nutritional rehabilitation removed any differences between control and previously undernourished groups, irrespective of the level of undernutrition.

Animals

[A study of family communication space (Part I)--A preliminary study on how family communication is actually practiced].

Housing science needs to concern itself with how to improve space for family communication because it plays an important role in human dwelling life. The purpose of this report (Parts I, II & III) is, hence, to elucidate various factors conditioning family communication, and spatial traits of the rooms where it is conducted, based on the survey of the households of students at women's junior colleges. Part I delves into what is specifically communicated within a family and how it is related with other living activities, by grasping how communication is practiced in everyday family life. A basic analysis is made as to how conscious a family members are of their mutual communication, and how rooms are used for it. It has become clear that family communication is closely related with meal-taking both behaviorally and spatially, and that different attitudes among a family members toward family communication cause different modes, and evaluations of it. It has proved to be necessary, for the further studies of family communication, to give an analytical perspective to an in-depth examination of how rooms in the target families are used and how every member views and evaluates their family communication.

Communication

Pattern of spatial distribution in Drosophila melanogaster.

The effect of temperature and sex on spatial distribution of Drosophila melanogaster adults was studied in a specially designed apparatus. It was observed that individuals tend to aggregate in sections of the sphere independently of sex and temperature. Nevertheless, decrease in temperature increase aggregation. The mobility of both males and females indicates a negative geotactic tendency.

Animals

Space utilization of Peromyscus: social and spatial factors.

Space utilization of Peromyscus maniculatus bairdi and P. leucopus noveboracensis was studied in laboratory enclosures. After 1 week, individuals were given access to twice as much space for an additional week. The new rea was either vacant or was occupied by a similarly experienced conspecific of the same or opposite sex. Patterns of space utilization and reaction to the doubling of space were species specific. Each species displayed specific patterns of social behaviour and only P. maniculatus reproduced. Both species exhibited similar patterns of space utilization in the presence of another individual. Social regulation of space utilization did not result from territorial defence of mutually exclusive areas, but from the initial mutual avoidance of two individuals.

Aggression

Lack of sensitive period for lead-induced behavioral impairment on a spatial delayed alternation task in monkeys.

A total of 52 monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were dosed orally with vehicle or 1.5 mg/kg/day of lead on one of four dosing regimens (13 monkeys/group): vehicle only; dosed with lead from birth onward; dosed with lead from birth to 400 days of age and vehicle thereafter; dosed with vehicle from birth to 300 days of age and lead thereafter. Blood lead concentrations averaged 3-6 micrograms/dl when monkeys were not being dosed with lead, 32-36 micrograms/dl when being dosed with lead and having access to infant formula, and 19-26 micrograms/dl when being dosed with lead after weaning from infant formula. When monkeys were 6-7 years old, they were tested on a spatial delayed alternation task. The task required the monkey to alternate responses between two push buttons. The initial delay was 0.10 sec and was increased in steps to 15 sec by the end of the experiment. All three treated groups were impaired to approximately an equal degree. Deficits were observed in the initial training procedure, and at the longer delay values. These results suggest that there is not an early critical period for lead-induced impairment on this task and that exposure only during infancy results in impairment comparable to ongoing exposure beginning at birth. These results are in contrast to previous findings on a series of nonspatial discrimination reversal tasks, in which the group exposed early in life only was unimpaired, while the group exposed beginning after infancy was less impaired that the group exposed continuously from birth.

Age Factors

Effects of delay, intertrial interval, delay behavior and trimethyltin on spatial delayed response in rats.

Working memory was modeled in rats using a delayed response task with spatial location as the discriminative cue. Rats received food for pressing 1 of 2 retractable levers in the choice phase of a trial if that lever had been presented in the prior sample phase of that trial. When delays of 0-20 sec were imposed between sample and choice, choice accuracy declined with increasing delay. With short intertrial intervals (ITIs), choice accuracy decreased more at long delays than at short delays, showing that interference from previous trials impaired memory but not discrimination. Rats emitted overt mediating responses during delay by pressing the levers in the retracted position. However, the frequency of delay presses was low (less than 2/trial in all rats) and neither their frequency nor accuracy was related to choice accuracy. Resetting the delay interval for each delay press did not significantly alter choice response accuracy. Trimethyltin (TMT), 7 mg/kg IV, reduced the choice accuracy of one rat to chance levels at all delays; two other rats were affected transiently. TMT reduced choice accuracy during weeks 1 and 4 postinjection, with significant effects on the linear slope and intercept of the mean retention gradient during week 4. TMT did not affect responses to the retracted levers during delays. TMT treatment also elevated levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in the CNS, measured 4 weeks after treatment. Hippocampal GFAP correlated highly with the reduction in choice accuracy during week 1 (r = -.903) and week 4 (r = -.797) postTMT.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals