Effects of Sex and MK-801 on Auditory-Processing Deficits Associated With Developmental Microgyric Lesions in Rats

• Published in: Behavioral neuroscience 1997-04, Vol.111 (2), p.404-412
• Main Authors: Fitch, R. Holly, Brown, Christine P, Tallal, Paula, Rosen, Glenn D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal; Animal behavior; Animal Sex Differences; Animals; Attention - drug effects; Auditory Discrimination; Auditory Perception - drug effects; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex; Cerebral Cortex - drug effects; Cerebral Cortex - injuries; Discrimination Learning - drug effects; Dizocilpine Maleate - pharmacology; Ears & hearing; Female; Freezing; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Injections, Intraperitoneal; Male; Necrosis; Neurology; Neuronal Plasticity - drug effects; Neuroprotective Agents - pharmacology; Neurotransmission and behavior; Pregnancy; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Reaction Time - drug effects; Rodents; Sex Differentiation - drug effects; Sex Factors
• ISSN: 0735-7044; 1939-0084
• DOI: 10.1037/0735-7044.111.2.404

Neonatally induced microgyric lesions produce defects in rapid auditory processing in adult male rats. Given that females across species are less susceptible to the deleterious effects of neural injury and that treatment with neuroprotective agents at the time of injury can reduce neural damage, the authors tested the effects of sex and neuroprotectant exposure on the behavioral consequences of microgyric lesions in rats. Results showed that sham but not microgyric males were able to perform the task at the fastest rate of stimulus presentation. Microgyric females, in contrast, discriminated at all stimulus conditions and did not differ from female shams. Microgyric males treated with MK-801 had reduced cortical damage and performed the discrimination at the fastest condition. Results suggest that females are less susceptible to the behavioral effects of neocortical microgyria and that MK-801 may ameliorate the behavioral consequences of these lesions in male rats.