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Long maternal separation has protective effects in rats exposed to activity‐based anorexia
Author(s) -
Carrera O.,
Cerrato M.,
Sanchez A.,
Gutierrez E.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.20396
Subject(s) - anorexia , separation (statistics) , maternal deprivation , endocrinology , medicine , psychology , physiology , machine learning , computer science
This study examined the effect of three neonatal treatments of maternal separation during infancy in young adult rats exposed to standard activity‐based anorexia (ABA) consisting of food restriction plus free access to an activity wheel. During the first 20 postnatal days of life rat pups were exposed to periods of either brief maternal separation (BMS, 15 min), long maternal separation (LMS, 180 min), or were non‐handled (NH). Thereafter, male and female rats were exposed to ABA. Neonatal treatment produced no significant differences in the survival time of male rats, whereas survival was greater in female rats exposed to LMS than in NH rats under ABA procedure. In conclusion, prolonged maternal separation appears to promote resistance in female animals subjected to harsh ABA life‐threatening conditions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 51: 616–624, 2009