Early Life Maternal Separation and Maternal Behaviour Modulate Acoustic Characteristics of Rat Pup Ultrasonic Vocalizations.

ABSTRACT: Early separation of preterm infants from their mothers has adverse, long-term neurodevelopmental consequences. We investigated the effects of daily maternal separation (MS) of rat pups from postnatal days 2-10 (PND2-10) on neurobehavioural responses to brief isolation at PND12 compared with pups receiving controlled handling without MS. Ultrasonic vocalizations (USV) were measured at PND12 during two, 3-minute isolations occurring immediately before and after a 3-minute maternal reunion. There were no significant differences in acoustic characteristics between MS and control animals in the first isolation. However, in the second isolation, MS pups produced a greater proportion of high (~60 kHz) vs low (~40 kHz) frequency calls. During this isolation, control pups made longer and louder low

SUBMITTER: Kaidbey JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6908621 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature