QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

The Journal of Neuroscience, October 5, 2005, 25(40):9102-9111; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2345-05.2005

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (19) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Card, J. P. Articles by Rinaman, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Card, J. P. Articles by Rinaman, L.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Early Experience Modifies the Postnatal Assembly of Autonomic Emotional Motor Circuits in Rats

J. Patrick Card,¹ Pat Levitt,² Maxim Gluhovsky,¹ and Linda Rinaman¹

¹Department of Neuroscience, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, and ²Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37202

Rat pups that are repeatedly handled and separated from their dam exhibit altered adult behavioral, endocrine, and autonomic responses to stress, but the extent to which early handling and/or maternal separation (H/S) alters the development of circuits that underlie these responses is unknown. The present study tested the hypothesis that early H/S alters the postnatal assembly of synapses within preautonomic emotional motor circuits. Circuit development was traced by synapse-dependent retrograde transneuronal transport of pseudorabies virus (PRV) from the stomach wall. Control and H/S rats were analyzed between postnatal day 6 (P6) and P10, a period of rapid synaptic assembly among preautonomic circuit components. Pups in H/S groups were removed from their dam daily for either 15 min or 3 h beginning on P1, and were injected with virus on P8 and perfused on P10. Quantitative analyses of primary and transsynaptic PRV immunolabeling confirmed an age-dependent assembly of hypothalamic, limbic, and cortical inputs to autonomic nuclei. Circuit assembly was significantly altered in H/S pups, in which fewer neurons in the central amygdala, the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, and visceral cortices were infected compared with age-matched controls. In contrast, H/S did not alter the assembly of paraventricular hypothalamic inputs to gastric autonomic neurons. H/S-related reductions in limbic and cortical transneuronal infection were similar in pups exposed daily to 15 min or 3 h maternal separation. These findings support the view that environmental events during early postnatal life can influence the formation of neural circuits that provide limbic and cortical control over autonomic emotional motor output.

Key words: autonomic; emotion; gastric; gastrointestinal; hypothalamus; limbic; stress; postnatal development; pseudorabies virus; maternal separation; transneuronal tracing

---

Received June 8, 2005; revised August 17, 2005; accepted August 19, 2005.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				Y. Sevelinges, R. M. Sullivan, B. Messaoudi, and A.-M. Mouly Neonatal odor-shock conditioning alters the neural network involved in odor fear learning at adulthood Learn. Mem., August 26, 2008; 15(9): 649 - 656. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Balland, P. Lachamp, J.-P. Kessler, and F. Tell Silent Synapses in Developing Rat Nucleus Tractus Solitarii Have AMPA Receptors J. Neurosci., April 30, 2008; 28(18): 4624 - 4634. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. Balland, P. Lachamp, C. Strube, J.-P. Kessler, and F. Tell Glutamatergic synapses in the rat nucleus tractus solitarii develop by direct insertion of calcium-impermeable AMPA receptors and without activation of NMDA receptors J. Physiol., July 1, 2006; 574(1): 245 - 261. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. D. Bauman Early Social Experience and Brain Development J. Neurosci., February 15, 2006; 26(7): 1889 - 1890. [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help