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Cutting the vagus nerve below the diaphragm prevents maternal potentiation of infant rat vocalization
Author(s) -
Shair Harry N.,
Smith Jonathan A.,
Welch Martha G.
Publication year - 2012
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.20577
Subject(s) - long term potentiation , psychology , diaphragm (acoustics) , social isolation , isolation (microbiology) , juvenile , medicine , biology , receptor , physics , genetics , acoustics , loudspeaker , microbiology and biotechnology , psychotherapist
In maternal potentiation, the rate of vocalization by a young organism during isolation is greatly enhanced if that isolation has been immediately preceded by an interaction with the mother (or other adult female in the case of rats). The enhancement in isolation‐induced vocalization rate does not occur if the young animal had an interaction with other social companions like littermates or with familiar inanimate stimuli like home cage shavings. The present study demonstrates that pups whose vagus nerve is cut below the diaphragm do not potentiate vocalization after an interaction with their dam. The vocalization rates of denervated pups in a first isolation, in the presence of the dam, and during cold exposure do not differ from control pups. Their non‐vocal behaviors also appear unaffected by the surgery. Similar to what has been shown in studies of fever‐induced behavioral changes, an intact vagus nerve from the gut is necessary for young rat pups to show normal social mediation of their isolation‐induced vocal responses. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 54:70–76, 2012.