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PKU, Learning, and models of mental retardation
Author(s) -
Strupp Barbara J.,
Levitsky David A.,
Blumstein Lisa
Publication year - 1984
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.420170202
Subject(s) - borderline intellectual functioning , psychology , observational study , observational learning , developmental psychology , intellectual development , mental development , animal model , cognition , intelligence quotient , intellectual disability , test (biology) , audiology , clinical psychology , neuroscience , medicine , psychiatry , biology , paleontology , mathematics education , experiential learning
Experimental phenylketonuria was induced in male rats by daily injections of α‐methylphenylalanine and phenylalanine on postnatal Days 3–31. Beginning at 8 weeks of age, the animals were subjected to a test of observational learning followed by a test of latent learning (two tests of “advantageous” learning). The animals subjected to the PKU treatment early in life showed significant learning deficits in both tests. The importance of these studies lies in the fact that unlike conventional tests of learning, tests of advantageous learning are sensitive to the kinds of biological insults which cause mental retardation in humans. This differential sensitivity evident in studies of animal models of cognitive pathology is analogized to the areas of dysfunction which characterize human mental retardation. Suggestions for the development of appropriate models of intellectual development of appropriate models of intellectual development are made.