Rearing with artificially scented mothers attenuates conditioned odor aversion in adulthood but not its amygdala dependency

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether neonatal odor experience associated with the mother affects food avoidance learning and basolateral amygdala (BLA) involvement in adulthood. Odorization of mother's nipples with banana or almond solutions from birth to weaning resulted in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioural brain research 2009-03, Vol.198 (2), p.313-320
Main Authors: Sevelinges, Yannick, Lévy, Frédéric, Mouly, Anne-Marie, Ferreira, Guillaume
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Factors
Amygdala - physiology
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Association Learning - physiology
Avoidance Learning - physiology
Behavioral psychophysiology
Biological and medical sciences
Conditioning, Classical - physiology
Early olfactory preference
Female
Food memory
Food Preferences - psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Juvenile
Learning
Life Sciences
Male
Memory - physiology
Mother-Child Relations
Musa
Neurons and Cognition
Odorants
Pregnancy
Prunus dulcis
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Rat
Rats
Rats, Wistar
Smell - physiology
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Summary:The aim of the present study was to investigate whether neonatal odor experience associated with the mother affects food avoidance learning and basolateral amygdala (BLA) involvement in adulthood. Odorization of mother's nipples with banana or almond solutions from birth to weaning resulted in an impairment at adulthood of conditioned odor aversion (COA). These effects were specific to the early-experienced odor since no deficit was observed for COA to a novel odor (Experiment 1). In contrast, mere exposure to an odor in the home cage instead of on mother's nipples induced no deficit in COA at adulthood (Experiment 2). Finally, transitory inactivation of the BLA during COA acquisition in adult animals impaired the normal COA of naïve animals but also the attenuated COA of rats with early odor experience on the mother (Experiment 3). These results demonstrate that neonatal odor experience associated with the mother promotes the acquisition of appetitive memories which can interfere with food avoidance learning in adulthood. They also suggest that this early experience did not modify the BLA involvement in learned aversion.
ISSN:0166-4328
1872-7549
DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2008.11.003