Behavioural Brain Research 240 (2013) 110–118

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Research report

Neurobiological effects of neonatal maternal separation and post-weaning environmental enrichment
Ana Laura Vivinetto, Marta Magdalena Suárez, María Angélica Rivarola ∗
Cátedra de Fisiología Animal-Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Av. Vélez Sarsfield 299-X5000JJC, Córdoba, Argentina

h i g h l i g h t s
We examined whether environmental enrichment (EE) could compensate the effects of early maternal separation (MS). Maternal separation impaired inhibitory avoidance but had no effect in object …ver más…

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +54 351 4332100x239. E-mail address: arivarola@efn.uncor.edu (M.A. Rivarola). 0166-4328/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2012.11.014

A.L. Vivinetto et al. / Behavioural Brain Research 240 (2013) 110–118

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mother and pups during early postnatal life is essential for proper growth and development in most mammals [6,3,9]. Stress affects early neurogenesis, synaptic production and retraction and myelination, during critical periods of postnatal development. Separation from dams represents one of the most potent stressors for pups. Both in rodents and primates, exposure to prolonged periods of maternal separation during early life increases the magnitude of neuroendocrine responses to stress and, consequently, vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology [10,11,6]. Maternal separation during the early postnatal period, when the rat brain is undergoing neural development, has been reported to produce structural disruptions in the brain and may also cause changes in learning and memory that persist into adulthood [12,7]. However, the results are inconclusive and the neural mechanisms underlying the long-term effects of early experiences still need to be fully investigated. In our laboratory, the model of early environmental manipulation of mother–infant relationships consists of 4.5 h daily separations performed from birth until