Abstract
The combination of two factors — isolation and ontogenesis (starting from 21 days) and subsequent training of rats to a cyclical habit — could in some animals (30%) lead to the formation of unusual behavioral strategies consisting of maintenance of the cyclical habit without reinforcement with food. This dissociation from the vital motivation is regarded as an analog of the disintegration phenomenon, a key step in psychoneurotic disorders. The most common type of disturbance in isolated animals was suppression of searching activity, with extreme learning difficulty, though a training process including a two-month break led to a significant increase in motor-searching activity in this situation. These behavioral abnormalities were accompanied by morphological changes in the sensorimotor cortex of the brain, with a relative thinning of layer 5 and selective decreases in the density of satellite glial cells and deviations from the normal correlational relationships between behavioral and neuroglial measures.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. G. Airapetyants, M. M. Aleksandrovskaya, and A. V. Kol’tsova, “Microstructural cerebral changes in experimental neurosis,” in: Neuroses in Research and Clinical Practice [in Russian], M. G. Airapetyants and A. M. Vein (eds.), Nauka, Moscow (1982), pp. 110–117.
N. A. Bernshtein, The Structure of Movements [in Russian], Medgiz, Moscow (1947).
A. P. Bol’shakov, M. V. Onufriev, N. M. Khonicheva, M. Yu. Stepanichev, M. G. Airapetyants, and N. V. Gulyaeva, “The effects of early social isolation on nitric oxide synthase activity in areas of the rat brain,” Neirokhimiya, 18, No. 4, 261–266 (2001).
L. G. Voronin, K. A. Nikol’skaya, and Sh. K. Sagimbaeva, “The physiological mechanisms of skills acquired in a maze in white rats,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 217, No. 5, 1225–1229 (1973).
A. I. Zakharov, Prophylaxis of Abnormalities in Child Behavior [in Russian], Soyuz, St. Petersburg (2000).
A. Kempinski, The Psychopathology of Neuroses [in Russian], PMI, Warsaw (1975).
A. R. Luriya, Basic Neuropsychology [in Russian], Moscow State University Press, Moscow (1973).
S. V. Madorskii, Emotional Disturbances in Lesions of the Mediobasal Structures of the Temporal Lobe of the Brain [in Russian], Nauka, Moscow (1985).
K. A. Nikol’skaya, A. V. Savonenko, A. I. Osipov, O. V. Eshchenko, and A. Ya. Karas’, “The informational role of instinct in organizing purposive behavior,” Usp. Biol. Nauk, 115, No. 3, 390–396 (1995).
K. A. Nikol’skaya and N. M. Khonicheva, “Characteristics of learning in rats in conditions of free choice,” Zh. Vyssh. Nerv. Deyat., 49, No. 3, 436–445 (1999).
V. P. Poshivalov, Agressology [in Russian], Nauka, St. Petersburg (1989).
K. Pribram, “Central processes of the creation of images, information processing, and episodic ‘dawning’,” in: Neurophysiological Mechanisms of Behavior [in Russian], Nauka, Moscow (1982), pp. 348–371.
P. V. Simonov, Lectures on the Operation of the Brain: the Need-Informational Model of Higher Nervous Activity [in Russian], Nauka, Moscow (2001).
N. M. Khonicheva and E. A. Lushchekina, “The relative effectivenesses of seeking and conditioned reflex feeding behavior: relative improvements in the former and delays in the latter in rats after amygdalectomy,” Zh. Vyssh. Nerv. Deyat., 43, No. 4, 1137–1142 (1993).
N. M. Khonicheva and K. A. Nikol’skaya, “Individual variability in learning in rats in a maze: the role of brain structures (extirpation of the amygdaloid complex),” Usp. Sovrem. Biol., 119, No. 3, 286–292 (1999).
N. M. Khonicheva and K. A. Nikol’skaya, “Acquisition of a cyclical skill in rats as a model of cognitive activity after extirpation of the amygdaloid complex,” Zh. Vyssh. Nerv. Deyat., 49, No. 4, 436–445 (1999).
A. Yu. Shishelova, The Role of the Sensorimotor Flow in Forming Behavioral Responses and Learning Ability [in Russian], Author’s abstract of thesis for doctorate in biological sciences, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Moscow (2000).
V. Deroche, P. V. Piazza, M. Le Moal, and H. Simon, “Social isolation-induced enhancement of psychomotor effects of morphine depends of corticosterone secretion,” Brain Res., 640, No. 1–2, 136–139 (1994).
A. Kalueff, “New perspectives in the field of experimental modelling of anxiety and depression,” in: Proceedings of 8th Conference on Stress and Behavior; Psikhofarmakol. Biol. Narkologiya, 4, No. 2–3, 749–750 (2004).
P. Kehoe, W. J. Shoemaker, C. Arons, et al., “Repeated isolation stress in neonatal rat: relation to brain dopamine system in 10-old-day rat,” Behav. Neurosci., 112, No. 6, 1466–1474 (1998).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
__________
Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 393–399, May–June, 2005.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khonicheva, N.M., Loseva, E.V., Chabak-Garbach, R. et al. A special case of learning disorder in isolant rats as a model of disintegration. Neurosci Behav Physiol 36, 597–603 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-006-0063-3
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-006-0063-3