Developmental PsychobiologyThis is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader, such as GoogleReader, or to display this data on your own website or blog. Subscribe to this data using MyMedWorm.Subscribe to this data using GoogleReader.Subscribe to this data using Bloglines.Subscribe to this data using MyYahoo.

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Sleep quality, cortisol levels, and behavioral regulation in toddlersEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examines the association between nighttime sleep characteristics and cortisol levels and how these variables relate to aspects of children's temperament and behavior. Twenty-seven healthy children, aged 12-36 months, attending group childcare settings, participated in the study. Each child's sleep was measured at home with actigraphy over three nights. Saliva samples were collected by the mothers at bedtime and within 30 min of awakening. In addition, both the mother and the daycare teacher rated the child's behavioral difficulties and negative emotionality. It was found that children with more fragmented sleep ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - November 18, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anat Scher, Wendy A. Hall, Anat Zaidman-Zait, Joanne Weinberg Source Type: journals

Changes in mid-to-late latency auditory evoked reponses in the chicken during neural maturationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Utilizing the special advantages offered by the protracted maturation of neural circuits in chicken forebrain this study investigates the functional consequence of maturation using auditory evoked response potentials (AERPs) in behaving animals. Repeated measures AERP recordings were undertaken between weeks 1 and 8 posthatch. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant decrease in amplitude of the positive AERP component and a decrease in latency of the negative AERP component with maturation. AERPs were also utilized to investigate perturbed maturation via the induction of chemically induced hypothyroidism. Results from...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - October 31, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rebbekah Atkinson, John A.P. Rostas, Mick Hunter Source Type: journals

Development of behavior in the litter huddle in rat pups: Within- and between-litter differencesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusion, our study shows there to be consistent between-litter as well as within-litter differences in behavioral patterns during early life. These differences might have important implications for an individual's long-term behavioral and physiological performance. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - October 29, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Amando Bautista, Esmeralda García-Torres, Geraldine Prager, Robyn Hudson, Heiko G. Rödel Source Type: journals

Dopamine receptors modulate ethanol's locomotor-activating effects in preweanling ratsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Near the end of the second postnatal week motor activity is increased soon after ethanol administration (2.5 g/kg) while sedation-like effects prevail when blood ethanol levels reach peak values. This time course coincides with biphasic reinforcement (appetitive and aversive) effects of ethanol determined at the same age. The present experiments tested the hypothesis that ethanol-induced activity during early development in the rat depends on the dopamine system, which is functional in modulating motor activity early in ontogeny. Experiments 1a and 1b tested ethanol-induced activity (0 or 2.5 g/kg) after a D1-like (SCH2339...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - October 19, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Carlos Arias, Estela C. Mlewski, Cristian Hansen, Juan Carlos Molina, Maria Gabriela Paglini, Norman E. Spear Source Type: journals

Vocal and locomotor responses of piglets to social isolation and reunionEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Potentiation of infant isolation calls following a brief reunion with the mother is considered an index of filial bonding in altricial rodents. We investigated potentiation of isolation and reunion responses in 15-day-old unweaned domestic piglets (Sus scrofa domesticus). When piglets were re-isolated following a brief, comforting reunion with their mother and littermates in their home pen, they displayed a persistence (relative potentiation) of calling and jumping. In contrast, when re-isolated following a brief interaction with their mother or an unfamiliar sow in a familiar or unfamiliar location, or with littermates al...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 22, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Valentina Colonnello, Paolo Iacobucci, Ruth C. Newberry Source Type: journals

Hair cortisol predicts object permanence performance in infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In this study we examined whether hair cortisol, an integrated measure of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning, predicted performance of nursery-reared (NR) infant rhesus monkeys (n = 32) on Piagetian object permanence tasks. Testing of NR infants began at 19.8 ± 2.2 (mean ± SE) days of age and continued for the next several months. Hair cortisol concentrations from the 32 NR monkeys were compared to those of 20 mother-peer-reared (MPR) infants. Hair was shaved at Day 14, allowed to regrow, and obtained again at month 6, thus representing integrated cortisol over a 5.5-month period of time. NR and MPR in...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 21, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Amanda M. Dettmer, Matthew F.S.X. Novak, Melinda A. Novak, Jerrold S. Meyer, Stephen J. Suomi Source Type: journals

Atypical functional lateralization in children with fetal alcohol syndromeEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In order to explore effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on functional lateralization, item tasks measuring preferences of hand, foot, eye, and ear were administered to a sample of 23 children diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) compared with typically developing (TD) children. In addition, a dichotic listening task was administered to a subsample of 11 children with FAS and a TD group of comparable age, sex and handedness. The children with FAS were characterized by increased nonright-handedness compared with TD children. No differences were evident for preferential use of foot, eye, or ear. Moreover, children wit...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 18, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Erik Domellöf, Louise Rönnqvist, Maurice Titran, Rana Esseily, Jacqueline Fagard Source Type: journals

Olfactory guidance of nipple attachment and suckling in kittens of the domestic cat: Inborn and learned responsesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In 60 kittens (11 litters) from free-ranging domestic cats we investigated the role of chemical cues in facilitating nipple attachment and suckling during the first month of postnatal life when kittens are totally dependent on the mother's milk. Kittens were tested both together and individually on sedated females in different reproductive states. We found (1) that newborn kittens with no suckling experience responded to the ventrum of lactating but not to the ventrum of nonlactating females with search behavior and attached to nipples within minutes; (2) that even in older kittens, nipple attachment depended on females' r...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Gina Raihani, Daniel González, Lourdes Arteaga, Robyn Hudson Source Type: journals

Sexually dimorphic effects of postnatal treatment on the development of activity-based anorexia in adolescent and adult ratsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Hyperactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a marked feature of anorexia nervosa. Using a modified version of the activity-based animal model of anorexia nervosa, we examine whether factors known to affect HPA axis activity influence the development of activity-based anorexia (ABA). Male and female rats were subjected to maternal separation or handling procedures during the first two postnatal weeks and tested in a mild version of the ABA paradigm, comprised of 2-hr daily running wheel access followed by 1-hr food access, either in adolescence or adulthood. Compared to handled females, maternally sepa...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 14, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stephanie D. Hancock, Virginia L. Grant Source Type: journals

Maternal prenatal anxiety, postnatal caregiving and infants' cortisol responses to the still-face procedureEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study prospectively examined the separate and combined influences of maternal prenatal anxiety disorder and postnatal caregiving sensitivity on infants' salivary cortisol responses to the still-face procedure. Effects were assessed by measuring infant salivary cortisol upon arrival at the laboratory, and at 15-, 25-, and 40-min following the still-face procedure. Maternal symptoms of anxiety during the last 6 months of pregnancy were assessed using clinical diagnostic interview. Data analyses using linear mixed models were based on 88 women and their 7-month-old infants. Prenatal anxiety and maternal sensitivity emerg...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kerry-Ann Grant, Catherine McMahon, Marie-Paule Austin, Nicole Reilly, Leo Leader, Sinan Ali Source Type: journals

Ontogeny of Rat Recognition Memory measured by the novel object recognition taskEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Detection of novelty is an essential component of recognition memory, which develops throughout cerebral maturation. To better understand the developmental aspects of this memory system, the novel object recognition task (NOR) was used with the immature rat and ontogenically profiled. It was hypothesized that object recognition would vary across development and be inferior to adult performance. The NOR design was made age-appropriate by downsizing the testing objects and arena. Weanling (P20-23), juvenile (P29-40), and adult (P50+) rats were tested after 0.25, 1, 24, and 48 hr delays. Weanlings exhibited novel object recog...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Maxine L. Reger, David A. Hovda, Christopher C. Giza Source Type: journals

Psychophysiological correlates of parenting behavior in mothers of young childrenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study investigated HPA and vagal functioning as correlates of parenting in mothers of 175 six-month-old children. Salivary cortisol indexed HPA functioning and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reduction indexed vagal regulation. Positive engagement and negative intrusiveness were observed during the Face-to-Face Still Face Paradigm (FFSFP) reunion and a semi-structured free play episode. Mixed modeling was used to examine differences in maternal behaviors across contexts as a function of psychophysiology. Main effects of cortisol levels, as well as interactions with RSA reduction and context, predicted negative intr...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: W. Roger Mills-Koonce, Cathi Propper, Jean-Louis Gariepy, Melissa Barnett, Ginger A. Moore, Susan Calkins, Martha J. Cox Source Type: journals

Heart rate variability in response to pain stimulus in VLBW infants followed longitudinally during NICU stayEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The objective of this longitudinal study, conducted in a neonatal intensive care unit, was to characterize the response to pain of high-risk very low birth weight infants ( (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Nikhil S. Padhye, Amber L. Williams, Asif Z. Khattak, Robert E. Lasky Source Type: journals

Abstracts: International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, 42nd annual meeting, October 14-17, 2009 Chicago, ILEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
No Abstract. (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: journals

Long maternal separation has protective effects in rats exposed to activity-based anorexiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
In conclusion, prolonged maternal separation appears to promote resistance in female animals subjected to harsh ABA life-threatening conditions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: O. Carrera, M. Cerrato, A. Sanchez, E. Gutierrez Source Type: journals

Genetic effects on infant handedness under spatial constraint conditionsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Previous studies have reported a genetic influence on the individual differences in adult handedness; however, relatively little is known about genetic influences on the development of infant hand selection. In the current study, we examined whether genetic influences on handedness are expressed in various spatial locations in infants aged 18 months using the twin method. Infants were asked to respond to targets positioned in left, middle, and right locations using grasping movements. Results showed that similarities in hand selection within monozygotic twin pairs was more than two times higher than that of the dizygotic t...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - September 1, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Kunitake Suzuki, Juko Ando, Naho Satou Source Type: journals

Environmental enrichment influences survival rate and enhances exploration and learning but produces variable responses to the radial maze in old ratsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Wistar rats at 7 (mature), 16 (aging), and 22 (old) months of age spent 70 days in normal laboratory (Social), impoverished (Isolated) or dynamic Enrichment cages. The Enriched cage emphasized spatial re-arrangements of significant items, and the learning of new routes. Subsequently, Enriched rats at all ages entered a novel environment and escaped from a bright light with significantly shorter latencies than rats from either of the other environments. Mature, aging and some of the old Enriched rats also significantly outperformed their Isolated and Social counterparts in the radial maze. However old Enriched and Isolated ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - August 31, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: J.A. Bell, P.J. Livesey, J.F. Meyer Source Type: journals

Regional Fos expression induced by morphine withdrawal in the 7-day-old ratEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Human infants are often exposed to opiates chronically but the mechanisms by which opiates induce dependence in the infant are not well studied. In the adult the brain regions involved in the physical signs of opiate withdrawal include the periaqueductal gray area, the locus coeruleus, amygdala, ventral tegmental area, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, and spinal cord. Microinjection studies show that many of these brain regions are involved in opiate withdrawal in the infant rat. Our goal here was to determine if these regions become metabolically active during physical withdrawal from morphine in the infant rat as they do...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - August 25, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anika A. McPhie, Gordon A. Barr Source Type: journals

Prenatal maternal emotional complaints are associated with cortisol responses in toddler and preschool aged girlsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Associations between prenatal maternal emotional complaints and child behavioral and cognitive problems have been reported, with different relations for boys and girls. Fetal programming hypotheses underline these associations and state that the early development of the HPA-axis of the children may have been affected. In the present study, differences in cortisol responses of prenatally exposed and nonexposed children are examined for both sexes separately. Cortisol response patterns of a group preschool aged children that were prenatally exposed to high levels of maternal emotional complaints (N = 51) were compared to a n...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - August 16, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anouk T.C.E. de Bruijn, Hedwig J.A. van Bakel, Hennie Wijnen, Victor J.M. Pop, Anneloes L. van Baar Source Type: journals

Neural correlates of successful and partial inhibitions in children: An ERP studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This experiment used event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the neural processes underlying the development of response inhibition in a modified version of the go/no-go paradigm [Cragg and Nation [2008] Developmental Science 11(6): 819-827]. N2 and P3 ERP components on correct go trials and partial and successful inhibitions were compared in 7- and 9-year-old children. A larger N2 effect on successful inhibitions was found in 9-year-olds compared to 7-year-olds at fronto-central electrodes. N2 amplitude was positively related to behavioral performance in the 7-year-olds suggesting it may reflect inhibitory processe...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - August 14, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lucy Cragg, Allison Fox, Kate Nation, Corinne Reid, Mike Anderson Source Type: journals

Inhibited temperament and parent emotional availability differentially predict young children's cortisol responses to novel social and nonsocial eventsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Preschool-aged children (n = 274) were examined in the laboratory to assess behavioral and cortisol responses to nonsocial and social threat. Parents also responded to scales on the Children's Behavior Questionnaire reflecting exuberant approach to novel/risky activities (reversed scored) and shyness. Multi-method measures of Nonsocial and Social Inhibition were computed. Parents and children were observed engaging in a series of interactive tasks and the Emotional Availability scales were scored for parental sensitivity, nonintrusiveness, nonhostility, and structuring. These scores were factored to yield one measure of Pa...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - August 12, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Darlene A. Kertes, Bonny Donzella, Nicole M. Talge, Melissa C. Garvin, Mark J. Van Ryzin, Megan R. Gunnar Source Type: journals

Fetal motor activity and maternal cortisolEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The contemporaneous association between maternal salivary cortisol and fetal motor activity was examined at 32 and 36 weeks gestation. Higher maternal cortisol was positively associated with the amplitude of fetal motor activity at 32 weeks, r(48) = .39, p < .01, and 36 weeks, r(77) = .27, p < .05, and the amount of time fetuses spent moving at 32 weeks during the 50 min observation period, r(48) = 33, p < .05. Observation of periods of unusually intense fetal motor activity were more common in fetuses of women with higher cortisol, Mann-Whitney U = 58.5. There were no sex differences in fetal motor activity, but the assoc...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 23, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Janet A. DiPietro, Katie T. Kivlighan, Kathleen A. Costigan, Mark L. Laudenslager Source Type: journals

Stability of resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry and cardiac vagal tone in adolescent females exposed to child maltreatmentEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The experience of child maltreatment is a known risk factor for the development of psychopathology. Structural and functional modifications of neural systems implicated in stress and emotion regulation may provide one mechanism linking early adversity with later outcome. The authors examined two well-documented biological markers of stress vulnerability [resting frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry and cardiac vagal tone] in a group of adolescent females exposed to child maltreatment (n = 38; M age = 14.47) and their age-matched non-maltreated (n = 25; M age = 14.00) peers. Maltreated females exhibited greater rela...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 22, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Vladimir Miskovic, Louis A. Schmidt, Katholiki Georgiades, Michael Boyle, Harriet L. MacMillan Source Type: journals

Genetic and gene-environment interaction effects on preschoolers' social behaviorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examined effects from a specific dopamine receptor gene (DRD4), environmental influences from parents and peers, and the interaction between them, on aggressive and prosocial behaviors of preschoolers. Children were classified as DRD4-L (n = 27) if they had at least one DRD4 allele with six to eight repeats and as DRD4-S (n = 35) if not. Parent-child interactions were coded when children were 3-4 years old. Peer interaction data and parent questionnaires were collected at age 5. DRD4-L children shared less with each other and parents were less sensitive during parent-twin triadic interactions. Also, genotype int...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lisabeth Fisher DiLalla, Kit K. Elam, Andrew Smolen Source Type: journals

Development of dynamic stability in children's rhythmic movementEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study examined the hypothesis that the stability of rhythmic motor patterns increases with developmental age in children. Children aged 6 and 10 years and adults (18- to 23-year-olds) rocked back and forth at their preferred amplitude and frequency while seated on a wooden box placed atop a force platform. Participants performed the seated rocking task with their feet supported and unsupported. There was an age-related decrease in rocking frequency and variability of the rocking cycle period, while the stability of the rocking dynamics increased, as indexed by the standard deviation of the phase angle of center of pre...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Eric G. James, S. Lee Hong, Karl M. Newell Source Type: journals

Olfactory learning in the rat immediately after birth: Unique salience of first odorsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
An infant rat's chance of survival is increased when it remains close to the nest. Early olfactory learning supports such adaptive behavior. Previous experiments indicated that non-associative odor exposure immediately after birth promoted later attachment to a similarly scented artificial nipple. The goal of the current experiments was to extend these findings on olfactory learning in the hours after birth by: exposing pups to more than one odor exposure (Experiment 1), dissecting the role of timing versus order of odor exposure (Experiment 2), testing the odor specificity of these effects (Experiments 3 and 4), and evalu...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Stacie S. Miller, Norman E. Spear Source Type: journals

The ontogeny of exploratory behavior in male and female adolescent rats (Rattus norvegicus)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
During adolescence, rats gain independence from their mothers and disperse from the natal burrow, with males typically dispersing further than females. We predicted that, if dispersal patterns are associated with responsiveness to novelty, exploratory behavior in novel environments would increase across adolescence, and males would explore more than females. Alternatively, females might explore more than males, if females are more motivated than males to learn about the immediate environment or if females have poorer spatial abilities than males. Twenty-five male and 21 female rats were exposed to two novel environments (o...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - July 5, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Debra A. Lynn, Gillian R. Brown Source Type: journals

Temperament does not affect the overall establishment of mutual preference between the mother and her young in sheep measured in a choice testEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Temperament influences maternal behavior and lamb survival in Merino sheep selected for calm or nervous temperament. The impact of this selection on mother-young recognition and early expression of temperament in lambs is unknown. We tested the ability of multiparous ewes selected for calm (n = 16) or nervous (n = 18) temperament to recognize their own lambs 6 hr after parturition, the ability of the lambs to display a preference for their own mother at 18 hr, and the temperament of the lambs at 1 and 16 weeks of age. Ewes and lambs from both genotypes showed a similar preference for their familiar kin. In contrast, differ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - June 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: S.L. Bickell, R. Nowak, P. Poindron, F. Sèbe, A. Chadwick, D. Ferguson, D. Blache Tags: Research Articles Source Type: journals

Long-term effects of neonatal handling on mu-opioid receptor levels in the brain of the offspringEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Neonatal handling is an experimental paradigm of an early experience which permanently alters hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function resulting in increased ability to cope with stress, and decreased emotionality. In the present work we investigated the effect of neonatal handling on adult rat brain mu-opioid receptor levels, since the opioid system is known to play an important role in emotional processing, anxiety and stress responses. Neonatal handling resulted in increased levels of mu-opioid receptors in the basolateral and central amygdaloid nuclei, in the CA3 and CA4 hippocampal areas, in the ventral tegmental ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - June 9, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Georgios Kiosterakis, Antonios Stamatakis, Anastasia Diamantopoulou, Maria Fameli, Fotini Stylianopoulou Source Type: journals

Changes in hyporesponsiveness to acute amphetamine and age differences in tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the brain over adolescence in male and female ratsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We investigated hyposensitivity after amphetamine in early (postnatal Day 30; P30) and late (P45) adolescent rats compared to adults (P70) in experiment 1. Locomotor activity was measured for 1 hr after the first (acute) and second (24 hr later) injection of amphetamine (0.5 or 1.5 mg/kg). P30 and P45 rats were transiently hypoactive compared to adults, as indicated by reduced locomotor activity after acute amphetamine and enhanced activity after the second injection in adolescents only. In experiment 2, ovariectomy did not alter locomotor activity during habituation at any age compared to intact rats, and, as for intact a...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - June 3, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Iva Z. Mathews, Patti Waters, Cheryl M. McCormick Source Type: journals

Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone attenuates behavioral effects of corticotropin-releasing factor in isolated guinea pig pupsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
During a 3-hr period of social isolation in a novel environment, guinea pig pups exhibit an initial active phase of behavioral responsiveness, characterized primarily by vocalizing, which is then followed by a stage of passive responsiveness in which pups display a distinctive crouch, eye-closing, and extensive piloerection. Prior treatment of pups with alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone ([alpha]-MSH) reduces each of the passive behaviors. The onset of passive responding during separation can be accelerated with peripheral injection of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF). To examine whether CRF produces its effects thro...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - June 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Patricia A. Schiml-Webb, Emily Miller, Terrence Deak, Michael B. Hennessy Source Type: journals

Behavioral response to methylphenidate challenge: Influence of early life parental careEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Rat studies have shown that pups subjected to suboptimal rearing conditions exhibited permanently dysregulated dopamine activity and altered behavioral responses to dopamine stimulation. In humans, heightened stress-induced mesoaccumbens dopamine release in adults reporting low maternal care experience has been shown. We explored the relationship between quality of parental care and behavioral responsivity to reward and 20 mg of the dopamine agonist methylphenidate (MPH). Forty-three male university students accomplished a monetarily rewarded card-sorting task in a placebo controlled between-subjects study design. In parti...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - June 2, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Veronika Engert, Ridha Joober, Michael J. Meaney, Dirk H. Hellhammer, Jens C. Pruessner Source Type: journals

Long-term effects of infant learning on adult conditioned odor aversion are determined by the last preweaning experienceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We recently showed that odorizing mother's nipples from birth to weaning attenuated adult conditioned odor aversion (COA). The present study evaluated whether shorter durations of preweaning olfactory experiences could induce similar long-term effects. We first showed that late preweaning odorization (PN13-PN25) impaired adult COA similarly to odorization from birth to weaning (PN0-PN25) whereas early odorization (PN0-PN12) had no effect on adult COA. As early odorization was followed by an odorless suckling period, we evaluated whether this odorless suckling could have interfered with early associative learning. We theref...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - May 7, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Yannick Sevelinges, Anne-Marie Mouly, Frédéric Lévy, Guillaume Ferreira Source Type: journals

Early independent walking: A longitudinal study of load perturbation effectsEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study investigated infants' ability to adapt to experimentally induced changes in their body dimensions at walk onset, and how this ability is affected by increased walking experience. Fifteen infants were studied over their first 6 months of independent walking with a load perturbation design. They traversed a walkway with loads symmetrically placed around the shoulders, waist, or ankles, and without loading. At walk onset, infants fell more with shoulder and ankle loads than with waist or no loads. Shoulder loads further resulted in higher walking speed and longer steps, while waist loads resulted in increased walki...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - April 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Beatrix Vereijken, Arve Vorland Pedersen, Jan Harry Størksen Tags: Research Articles Source Type: journals

Detection of salivary oxytocin levels in lactating womenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study also supports the potential usefulness of salivary measures of oxytocin as a noninvasive index of changes in this peptide. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev. Psychobiol 51: 367-373, 2009. (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - April 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rosemary White-Traut, Kaoru Watanabe, Hossein Pournajafi-Nazarloo, Dorie Schwertz, Aleeca Bell, C. Sue Carter Tags: Research Articles Source Type: journals

Examining maternal influence on OLETF rats' early overweight: Insights from a cross-fostering studyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Obese female Otsuka Long Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) rats display increased nursing time and frequency compared to lean LETO controls, suggesting a maternal contribution to pup preobesity. In previous studies, OLETF pups presented high adiposity, showed greater suckling efficiency, initiative and weight gain from nursing than controls throughout lactation. To further elucidate maternal-infant interactions contributing to pup preobesity, we cross-fostered pups a day after birth and examined maternal behavior. Nursing frequency decreased in OLETF dams raising LETO pups (OdLp) in the third postnatal week, while LETO dams ra...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - April 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Mariana Schroeder, Michal Schechter, Ester Fride, Timothy H. Moran, Aron Weller Tags: Research Articles Source Type: journals

Maternal care affects the development of maternal behavior in inbred miceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The present study investigated the effects of variations in maternal behavior on the development of maternal behavior of female offspring in BALB/c and CBA/Ca inbred mice. In Experiment 1, we conducted fostering within or between the two strains and observed the maternal behaviors of mothers and female offspring for 2 weeks postpartum. Although fostering changed the maternal behavior of mothers in both strains, CBA mothers generally showed greater frequency of nursing posture and pup licking than BALB mothers. BALB female offspring reared by CBA mothers showed more body licking than those reared by BALB mothers, whereas fo...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - April 13, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hirotaka Shoji, Katsunori Kato Tags: Research Articles Source Type: journals

A new approach for exploring functional development of fetal brain pathwaysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Study of functional development of central pathways in fetuses is challenging due to the lack of methods available. In this article, we present a novel approach to test if and when central functional pathways are established by a combination of mapping with c-fos and chronically cannulated fetuses in utero. This approach is based on brain structures such as circumventricular organs (CVOs) that lack the blood-brain barrier (BBB), but are rich in sensors to peripheral signals and contain projections to other brain regions. If signaling molecules in the blood that are too large to cross the BBB induced c-fos expression in bot...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - April 9, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lijun Shi, Yujuan Liu, Caiping Mao, Fanxing Zeng, Kurt Meyer, Zhice Xu Source Type: journals

Olfactory association learning and brain-derived neurotrophic factor in an animal model of early deprivationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Animal models can serve to explore neural mechanisms underlying the effects of stressful early experiences on behaviors supporting attachment. Neonatal rats primarily use olfaction for attachment, and Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) may be a key transcription target in olfactory association learning. In this experiment, neonatal male and female rats were isolated individually for 3 hr daily in the first week of life while their dams were left with partial litters (Early Deprivation, ED) or remained undisturbed (Control). At 1 week of age, subjects were tested using a 2-day classical conditioning paradigm. The cond...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - March 26, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Betty Zimmerberg, Hannah E. Foote, Tracey A. Van Kempen Source Type: journals

Social motivation affects the display of individual discrimination in young and adult japanese quail(Coturnix japonica)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A simultaneous two-choice test was used to investigate discrimination between a familiar (F) and an unfamiliar conspecific (U) in Japanese quail, selected for high (HSR) or low (LSR) social reinstatement behavior (tendency to rejoin and stay close to conspecifics). Animals were 1-week unsexed and 6-week-old male quail. One-week-old LSR quail and 6-week-old male HSR quail displayed discrimination after 24 hr of pair contact (p < 0.05), and a tendency to discriminate (p < 0.10) was found in adult male LSR quail. After 1 week of pair contact, results were similar in LSR quail chicks, but no discrimination was evidenced in adu...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - March 11, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: C. Schweitzer, P. Poindron, C. Arnould Source Type: journals

Nipple preference and contests in suckling kittens of the domestic cat are unrelated to presumed nipple qualityEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We studied the development of suckling behavior and weight gain in 11 litters (52 kittens) of free-ranging domestic cats until postnatal day 28 just before the start of weaning. In six of these litters, we also recorded milk intake and contests for access to nipples. Already within 12 hr of birth kittens showed a preference for posterior nipples, and by postnatal day 3 each had developed a preference for particular nipples. In fact, 86% of kittens used one particular nipple most often, and even when the mother changed the side she lay on to nurse. Contests for access to nipples occurred throughout the study period at an av...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - March 4, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Robyn Hudson, Gina Raihani, Daniel González, Amando Bautista, Hans Distel Source Type: journals

Effects of alcohol and smoking during pregnancy on infant autonomic controlEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Prenatal exposure to smoking and alcohol increases the risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Physiological changes associated with these exposures are not well studied. Full-term infants were tested within the first 3 days of life. We hypothesized that maternal alcohol consumption and/or smoking during pregnancy would alter autonomic nervous system function. Newborns whose mothers smoked during pregnancy had lower beat-to-beat heart rate variability in quiet sleep. Infants whose mothers consumed alcohol had lower global heart rate variability, but only in active sleep. Unexposed infants demonstrated increases in he...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - February 28, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: William P. Fifer, Sherri Ten Fingers, Mitzi Youngman, Esperanza Gomez-Gribben, Michael M. Myers Source Type: journals

Brainstem mechanisms underlying the sudden infant death syndrome: Evidence from human pathologic studiesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The brainstem hypothesis is one of the leading hypotheses concerning the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It states that SIDS, or an important subset of SIDS, is due to abnormal brainstem mechanisms in the control of respiration, chemosensitivity, autonomic regulation, and/or arousal which impairs the infant's response to life-threatening, but often occurring, stressors during sleep (e.g., hypoxia, hypercarbia, asphyxia, hyperthermia) and leads to sudden death in a vulnerable developmental period. In this review, we summarize neuropathologic evidence from SIDS cases that support this hypothesis, beginning with the semi...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - February 24, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hannah C. Kinney Source Type: journals

What Is the mechanism of SIDS? Clues from epidemiologyEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is unknown. Many mechanisms have been postulated, although thermal stress, rebreathing of expired gases and infection/inflammation seem the most viable hypotheses for the causation of SIDS. Deaths from SIDS have reduced dramatically following the recommendation not to place infants to sleep prone. Epidemiological data have shown that prone sleeping position is more risky in winter, colder latitudes, higher altitudes, if the infant is unwell or has excessive bedding or clothing. This suggests prone sleeping position involves either directly or indirectly a thermal mechanism. ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - February 18, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Edwin A. Mitchell Source Type: journals

Sudden infant death syndrome: A developmental psychobiologist's perspectiveEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
No Abstract. (Source: Developmental Psychobiology)
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - February 11, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Michael M. Myers Source Type: journals

A history of iron deficiency anemia during infancy alters brain monoamine activity later in juvenile monkeysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Both during and after a period of iron deficiency (ID), iron-dependent neural processes are affected, which raises the potential concern that the anemia commonly experienced by many growing infants could have a protracted effect on the developing brain. To further investigate the effects of ID on the immature brain, 49 infant rhesus monkeys were evaluated across the first year of life. The mothers, and subsequently the infants after weaning, were maintained on a standardized diet containing 180 mg/kg of iron and were not provided other iron-rich foods as treats or supplements. As the infants grew, they were all screened wi...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - February 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Christopher L. Coe, Gabriele R. Lubach, Laura Bianco, John L. Beard Source Type: journals

Early lead exposure effects on an auditory threshold task in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Behavioral thresholds to pure tones were obtained from adult rhesus monkeys that had been exposed to lead during early development and unexposed cohort controls. Thresholds were elevated (by 2-9 dB) for the previously lead exposed monkeys at all frequencies tested (125-8,000 Hz in octave steps). Although the magnitude and direction of the differences were similar to significant effects reported for children, the more difficult task and much smaller sample sizes in this study of monkeys may have precluded obtaining significant differences at the same magnitude of effects observed in children. Thresholds for one lead-exposed...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - January 15, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Nellie K. Laughlin, Melissa L. Luck, Robert E. Lasky Source Type: journals

Development of olfactory ability in children: Sensitivity and identificationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This study assessed the influence of school level and gender on odor sensitivity and identification, and the role of verbal capacity on odor identification in children (4-12 years) by using a revised version of an olfactory test designed for adults [Rouby et al. (1997). Connaissance et reconnaissance d'une série olfactive chez l'enfant préscolaire. Enfance, 1, 152-171]. We found that odor sensitivity and identification scores increased with school level, and that identification performance was better in girls than in boys. However, when we controlled verbal ability, the gender differences disappeared and the school level...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - January 8, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: S. Monnery-Patris, C. Rouby, S. Nicklaus, S. Issanchou Source Type: journals

Adolescent female rats are more resistant than males to the effects of early stress on prefrontal cortex and impulsive behaviorEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We tested the hypothesis that adolescent Sprague-Dawley females may be more resistant than males to display impulsive behavior and lower prefrontal cortex thickness after mother-infant separation (MS). Starting at postnatal day 2 (P2), the MS group was separated 6 hr/day and the early handled (EH) group 15 min/day for 10 days, and another group was standard facility reared (SFR). Subjects were examined for novel open-field activity (P28), light-dark apparatus (P29), familiar open-field (P30) and frontal cortical thickness. This protocol resulted in impulsive behavior in MS rats relative to EH and SFR, but this effect was l...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - January 6, 2009 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jaclyn M. Spivey, Jason Shumake, Rene A. Colorado, Nelida Conejo-Jimenez, Hector Gonzalez-Pardo, F. Gonzalez-Lima Source Type: journals

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia and cognitive functioning in childrenEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
We examined associations between children's cognitive performance and both basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA regulation to a reaction time task. Cognitive performance was examined in the lab via standardized tests of cognitive functioning (Woodcock-Johnson III) and a reaction time task. Results suggest that a higher level of basal RSA is predictive of better performance on WJ III scales examining fluid intelligence (e.g., working memory, cognitive efficiency). RSA reactivity was not significantly related to cognitive performance. Results build on and extend the literature by demonstrating that, in typically ...
Source: Developmental Psychobiology - December 24, 2008 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lori Staton, Mona El-Sheikh, Joseph A. Buckhalt Source Type: journals