The role of the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) in motivation and cognitive functions is controversial. In order to clarify the involvement of this nucleus in learning, rats with N-methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) lesions to the PPTg were tested on the acquisition of a delayed non-matching to position task (DNMP) performed in a T-maze. Unlike sham-lesioned rats, animals with PPTg lesions did not learn the task. Analysis of the behavior displayed by the lesions animals, however, suggested that these rats suffered from elevated emotionality or arousal, rather than from learning deficits. This hypothesis was confirmed by demonstrating that the anxiolytic compound diazepam (1 mg/kg) normalized the performance of the PPTg-lesioned rats on the DNMP task and reduced the indices of anxiety displayed by animals with PPTg lesions when tested on the elevated plus maze. / These results suggested the possibility that the motivational impairments reported to be induced by PPTg lesions, could also be an artifact of lesion-induced elevation of anxiety or arousal. Thus, in order to verify this hypothesis, it was tested whether diazepam would modify the expression of conditioned place preference (CPP) to morphine and amphetamine in animals with NMDA-induced lesions to the PPTg. Diazepam reversed the effects of the lesion on a morphine CPP but not on an amphetamine CPP. A series of experiments, aimed at characterizing the effects of diazepam on morphine and amphetamine reinforcement in normal rats, showed that diazepam, either systemic or injected in the nucleus accumbens, blocks the reinforcing effects of amphetamine but has no effect on the reinforcing effects of morphine. These results suggest that impairments in CPP learning caused by PPTg lesions do not result from motivational deficits, but are caused by elevated emotionality or abnormal arousal.

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Rats are nocturnal animals, their ingestive behaviours show circadian rhythms and the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus are the primary pacemaker of these rhythms. Serotonin (5-HT) is one of the most abundant neurotransmitter in the SCN and it is involved in the regulation of ingestive behaviour. In this study, we compared food and water intakes of male adult Wistar rats infused during 7 days with serotonin (2.5 nmol/24h) or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the SCN in a three-way selection of macronutrients. Within 5-HT infusion, nocturnal and diurnal water intakes, and the nocturnal caloric intake from the protein diet were significantly lower than those of the CSF infused group. Decrease in water consumption was most significant in the early and middle dark phases. Besides, increased diurnal energy intake and decreased nocturnal energy intake were observed during 5-HT and CSF infusion. In conclusion, this first chronic and continuous infusion work on 5-HT in the SCN specifically disrupted the circadian rhythmicities in water and protein consumptions.

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No description available.

The mechanisms of pain and hyperalgesia were examined in rats following cutaneous-heat and peripheral-nerve injury. Central mechanisms of hyperalgesia were indicated since a heat injury produced a decrease in foot-withdrawal latencies in the paw contralateral to the injury and an increase in autotomy of the injured paw following section of the sciatic and saphenous nerves. The reduced contralateral foot-withdrawal latencies were reversed by spinal anesthesia and subcutaneous guanethidine, but were unaffected by local anesthetics and capsaicin at the site of injury. The enhancement of autotomy produced by an injury was reduced by spinal anesthesia and a combination of intrathecal capsaicin and subcutaneous guanethidine. Both intrathecal substance P and systemic noradrenaline produced an increase in autotomy following nerve lesions; guanethidine, but neither capsaicin nor procaine, produced a decrease in autotomy. A reduction in inflammation and hyperalgesia within an injured paw was produced by local capsaicin, but not by guanethidine. The results suggest that central mechanisms, such as spinal hyperactivity, combined with peripheral neurogenic mechanisms are involved in the production of hyperalgesia following heat injury. Pain and hyperalgesia following nerve injury are proposed to be due to spinal cord plasticity resulting from deafferentation and abnormal sympathetic activity.

The experiments reported in the present dissertation investigated the contribution of the pyriform cortex and of the basolateral amygdala to three classes of affective behavior: conditioned aversions, conditioned preferences, and neophobia. It was demonstrated that lesions of the pyriform cortex cause an impairment in the acquisition of aversions to olfactory, but not gustatory, stimuli and that this impairment is not secondary to alterations in primary olfactory function. The acquisition of a preference for a particular odor paired with reward was also shown to be impaired by such lesions. These results are discussed in terms of the rich innervation of the pyriform cortex by olfactory fibers, and of its projections to sub-cortical structures. Ibotenic-acid lesions of the basolateral amygdala caused a significant deficit in conditioned taste aversion, whereas these same lesions did not affect conditioned odor aversion. This dissociation was examined in light of the differences in anatomical projections from the olfactory and gustatory cortical areas to the basolateral region. The performance of animals with electrolytic lesions of the basolateral amygdala on a conditioned taste- and a conditioned odor-preference task raised some important questions concerning the contribution of this neural structure to stimulus-reward associations. The last two experiments demonstrated that the pyriform cortex plays an important role in neophobia, a role that is not limited to olfactory stimuli. This suggests that the analysis and subsequent transmission of olfactory information is critical to the expression of the neophobic response.

The maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy produces a wide range of abnormalities in the offspring. The major objectives of this thesis were to investigate (1) the correspondence between prenatal ethanol-induced alterations in behavior and in hypothalamicpituitary- adrenal (HPA) activity, (2) the ability of early postnatal handling as an environmental manipulation to attenuate at least some of the adverse behavioral and physiological consequences of prenatal ethanol exposure, and (3) possible mechanisms mediating the HP A hyperresponsiveness to stressors observed in animals prenatally exposed to ethanol and the possible influence of postnatal handling on those mechanisms. Sprague-Dawley rats from prenatal ethanol (E), pair-fed (PF) and ad libitum fed control (C) treatment groups were tested as young adults (-35-120 d of age) or mid-aged adults (13-14 months of age). The first study investigated the effects of prenatal ethanol exposure (E) and postnatal handling (H) on behavior and HPA activity during a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) task. We tested the hypothesis that E animals which underwent postnatal handling would show improved conditioned aversion learning and reduced HPA activity compared to E animals that did not experience handling (nonhandled, NH). We found that prenatal ethanol exposure and postnatal handling independently resulted in an increased rate of consumption of a saccharin solution over five preexposure days. In addition, we found that handling differentially affected posttoxicosis consumption of the conditioned solution as well as corticosterone (CORT) levels in E, PF and C animals. H-E animals showed increased posttoxicosis intake compared to H-PF and H-C animals during reexposure under non-deprived conditions; CORT levels were lower in PF and C than E males compared to their N H counterparts during reexposure under food- and waterdeprived conditions. Thus, E animals were less able to utilize environmental cues in the present study, displaying a more rapid reduction in neophobia compared to PF and C animals and, following postnatal handling, showing a decreased acquisition of conditioned aversion and an increased CORT response during reexposure to the conditioned solution. The second study examined spatial learning and memory in young adult (2 months) and mid-aged (13-14 months of age) H and N H E and control animals utilizing a Morris water maze. We investigated the hypothesis that postnatal handling would improve spatial navigation in E animals compared to E animals that did not experience handling and/or attenuate differences among E and control animals, and that this effect might be age-dependent. We also examined whether performance deficits in mid-aged animals would correspond to increases in CORT levels on the last day of testing. Young E males showed impairments in spatial navigation compared to young PF and C animals, taking longer to find the hidden platform over the course of testing and displaying an alteration in search pattern when the platform was removed. Interestingly, differences in young E, PF and C animals in escape latency and in distance traveled prior to finding the platform were apparent in H but not in N H animals. There were no differences in performance on the Morris water maze in mid-aged E, PF and C animals, but CORT levels were elevated in mid-aged E compared to C animals, supporting previous data indicating that E animals demonstrate HPA hyperresponsiveness to stressors. Lastly, although mid-aged animals had longer escape latencies and an altered search pattern compared to young animals, handling did not appear to attenuate impairments associated with aging. The third study investigated the hypothesis that postnatal handling might attenuate stress-induced ACTH and/or CORT differences among E, PF and C animals. Furthermore, the ability pf postnatal handling to modulate HPA feedback deficits in E animals was examined during exposure to a restraint stressor following dexamethasone (DEX) administration. Both E females and males showed increased ACTH and CORT compared to PF and/or C animals following saline administration. Administration of DEX to block HPA activity significantly suppressed both plasma ACTH and CORT in all animals. However, E females exhibited increased and/or prolonged elevations in ACTH and CORT compared to PF and C animals following DEX blockade. These data suggest that the insult of prenatal ethanol exposure affects both male and female offspring, but that there may be a sex-specific difference in sensitivity of the mechanism(s) underlying HPA hyperresponsiveness. Postnatal handling reduced ACTH levels in both females and males following saline administration. Following DEX administration, H males had lower CORT than NH males. Postnatal handling resulted in a more rapid decrease in stress-associated CORT elevations in C females, and attenuated differences in CORT between PF and C females. However, postnatal handling did not attenuate deficits in negative feedback inhibition in E females; E females in both the H and N H treatments showed elevated CORT compared to their C counterparts, and H-E females also showed elevated CORT compared to H-PF females. Thus, postnatal handling did not attenuate the typical HPA hyperresponsiveness to stressors observed in E animals (saline condition), nor did it eliminate deficits in HPA feedback inhibition in E females (DEX condition). The fourth study examined whether the mechanisms resulting in HPA hyperresponsiveness in E animals are similar to those underlying the effects of postnatal handling. Differences in HPA responsiveness between H and NH animals appear to be dependent upon basal CORT activity and not stress-induced elevations in CORT. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that differences in HPA activity among E and control animals would not occur following adrenalectomy (ADX) but could be reestablished following replacement with basal levels of exogenous CORT. In the absence of a CORT feedback signal or in the presence of a constant, basal CORT feedback signal, E, PF and C animals did not significantly differ in their abilities to regulate ACTH secretion, indicating that during the trough of the circadian rhythm, E, PF and C animals are equally capable of regulating HPA activity utilizing either CORT-independent feedback or feedback mediated through basal CORT activity. Thus, the effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on HPA function do not appear to be dependent upon the feedback signal provided by basal CORT levels. In conclusion, handling did not attenuate the effects of prenatal ethanol exposure examined in the present experiments. This may be because the effects of postnatal handling and prenatal ethanol exposure on HPA function are mediated through different mechanisms as well as the finding that handling is, at least partly, mediated through mother-pup interactions. Therefore, postnatal handling might exert differential effects on litters in which pup behavior has already been altered by prenatal treatments, underscoring the enduring effects of prenatal ethanol exposure. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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