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DISRUPTION OF CEREBELLAR MATURATION BY AN ANTIMITOTIC AGENT IMPAIRS THE ONTOGENY OF EYEBLINK CONDITIONING IN RATS
Citation:
Freeman, Jr., J., S. Barone, Jr., AND M. Stanton. DISRUPTION OF CEREBELLAR MATURATION BY AN ANTIMITOTIC AGENT IMPAIRS THE ONTOGENY OF EYEBLINK CONDITIONING IN RATS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-96/056, 1995.
Description:
This study represents an attempt to establish a relationship between maturation of the cerebellum and the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in the rat. xperiments 1 and 2 examined the effects of disrupting cerebellar maturation by neonatal exposure to the antimitotic agent methylazoxymethanol (MAM) on the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning in infant rats. xperiment 1 demonstrated that neonatal exposure to MAM on Postnatal Day 4 (PND4) and 7 severely disrupted cerebellar maturation. his effect appeared to be specific in hat there was no overt dysmorphology in other brain regions. AM, treatment also severely disrupted associative eyeblink conditioning n rats given training on PND24 and 25. owever, exposure to MAM had no effect on the unconditioned response, T-maze delayed alternation, or conditioned suppression of ongoing behavior. n Experiment 2, MAM was given on PND4 and 7 and pups were tested behaviorally on PND17-18, 20-21, or 3,1-32. erebellar hypoplasia was most dramatic shortly after exposure. he cerebellar cortex continued to mature after exposure to MAM, ut development of morphological endpoints examined here were static rom PND19 to 33. yeblink conditioning was impaired at all ages, indicating that there was no functional recovery following neonatal exposure to MAM over the age range tested. hese experiments suggest that normal cerebellar maturation may be mportant for the ontogeny of eyeblink conditioning.