Persistent changes in learning and memory in rats following neonatal treatment with domoic acid.

The present study examined the effects of neonatal exposure to serial low dose injections of the glutamate agonist, domoic acid (DOM), on learning and memory in two spatial memory tasks in the rat. Neonatal Sprague Dawley rats were given single daily injections of low dose DOM (20 microg/kg) over postnatal days 8-14 and assessed as adolescents and adults in the radial 8-arm maze and the Morris Water Maze, respectively. Our results indicate that the DOM-treated rats showed a complex pattern of lasting alterations in learning and memory performance measures that were task specific.

The effects of diet on plasma and yolk steroids in lizards (Anolis carolinensis).

Steroids present in egg yolk have been shown to vary as a result of numerous social and environmental influences and to produce both positive and negative phenotypic outcomes in offspring. In the present study, we examined how quality of the diet affects plasma and yolk steroids in the green anole (Anolis carolinensis), a lizard species with genotypic sex determination. We documented the effects of body condition on plasma testosterone (T) and corticosterone (CORT)-steroids with frequently opposing effects-in breeding females and on the T and CORT content of their eggs.

Effects of estrous stage and time of day on prepulse inhibition in female rats.

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response is a measure of sensory motor gating, and is affected in various neuropsychiatric disorders. Although PPI has been used extensively to study both the neural effects of such conditions, as well as in the search for animal models, a number of critical issues have been encountered. Published methods for testing PPI vary widely across many parameters, two of the most common being the phase of the light/dark cycle during which the subjects are tested and the inclusion or exclusion of females.