Sound exposure accelerates reflex emergence and development in young rats
Autor: | Jen Yin Chen, Paul W.F. Poon, Ying Hui Chen, Edmund Cheung So, Chieh Yu Huang, Bu Miin Huang |
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Rok vydání: | 2010 |
Předmět: |
Male
medicine.medical_specialty Brain development Video Recording Drinking Behavior Sensory system Audiology Rats Sprague-Dawley Random Allocation Sound exposure Auditory startle Reflex medicine Animals Body Size Nursing mother Neonatal rat Pure tone General Neuroscience Body Weight Brain Water Feeding Behavior Organ Size Anatomy Rats Acoustic Stimulation Animals Newborn Auditory Perception Female Psychology |
Zdroj: | Brain Research Bulletin. 81:391-397 |
ISSN: | 0361-9230 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2009.12.005 |
Popis: | Early sensory experience affects brain development. In rats, most somatic reflexes are not expressed at birth but may take as long as 2 weeks to emerge. Whether sensory enrichment during this early period affects reflex maturation remains unknown. Here, we exposed rat pups to a pure tone (4kHz, 65dB SPL, 8h/day) with their nursing mother during the first 3 postnatal weeks and measured the times when reflexes appeared on the basis of video recordings. Sound exposure accelerated by about 15% the appearance of all reflexes assessed (righting, cliff avoidance, vibrissa placing, negative geotaxis and auditory startle, p0.001). In addition, sound exposure accelerated the appearance of developmental characteristics: incisor eruption, ear unfolding and eye opening. These changes occurred concomitantly with an increase in pups' body and brain weights, together with a dramatic increase in fluid intake of the nursing mother. These findings are the first evidence that early sound exposure, even before opening of ear canals, accelerates reflex development. We speculate that the observed changes could involve the nursing mother. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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