Early Life Experience (early + life_experience)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Early life modulators and predictors of adult synaptic plasticity

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 2 2006
Katherine G. Akers
Abstract Early life experience can induce long-lasting changes in brain and behaviour that are opposite in direction, such as enhancement or impairment in regulation of stress response, structural and functional integrity of the hippocampus, and learning and memory. To explore how multiple early life events jointly determine developmental outcome, we investigated the combined effects of neonatal trauma (anoxia on postnatal day 1, P1) and neonatal novelty exposure (P2,21) on adult social recognition memory (3 months of age) and synaptic plasticity in the CA1 of the rat hippocampus (4.5,8 months of age). While neonatal anoxia selectively reduced post-tetanic potentiation (PTP), neonatal novel exposure selectively increased long-term potentiation (LTP). No interaction between anoxia and novelty exposure was found on either PTP or LTP. These findings suggest that the two contrasting neonatal events have selective and distinct effects on two different forms of synaptic plasticity. At the level of behaviour, the effect of novelty exposure on LTP was associated with increased social memory, and the effect of anoxia on PTP was not accompanied by changes in social memory. Such a finding suggests a bias toward the involvement of LTP over PTP in social memory. Finally, we report a surprising finding that an early behavioural measure of emotional response to a novel environment obtained at 25 days of age can predict adult LTP measured several months later. Therefore, individual differences in emotional responses present during the juvenile stage may contribute to adult individual differences in cellular mechanisms that underlie learning and memory. [source]


Postnatal handling alters the activation of stress-related neuronal circuitries

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 8 2000
István M. Ábrahám
Abstract Postnatal handling, as a crucial early life experience, plays an essential role in the development of hypothalamo-pituitary,adrenal axis responses to stress. The impact of postnatal handling on the reactivity of stress-related neuronal circuitries was investigated in animals that were handled for the first 21 days of life and as adults they were exposed to physical (ether) or emotional (restraint) challenge. To assess neuronal activation we relied on the induction of immediate-early gene product c-Fos and analysed its spatial and temporal distribution at various time intervals after stress. Ether and restraint commonly activated parvocellular neurons in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, and resulted in activation of brain areas providing stress-related information to the hypothalamic effector neurons and/or in regions governing autonomic and behavioural responses to stress. Beyond these areas, the strength and timing of c-Fos induction showed stressor specificity in olfactory and septal region, basal ganglia, hypothalamus, hippocampal formation, amygdala and brainstem. Handled rats displayed a lower number of c-Fos-positive cell nuclei and weaker staining intensity than non-handled controls in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus, bed nucleus of stria terminalis, central nucleus of amygdala, hippocampus, piriform cortex and posterior division of the cingulum. Significant differences were revealed in timing of c-Fos induction as a function of stressor and early life experience. Together, these data provide functional anatomical evidence that environmental enrichment in the early postnatal period attenuates the reactivity of stress-related neuronal circuitries in the adult rat brain. [source]


Pulmonary sequelae in long-term survivors of bronchopulmonary dysplasia

PEDIATRICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 6 2000
Daniel Kwok-Keung Ng
AbstractBackground: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a common problem in premature babies. Long-term sequelae are the main concerns. Methods: A retrospective review of all BPD children born in Queen Mary Hospital, a teaching hospital of the University of Hong Kong, from January 1987 to December 1995 was conducted. Children with cerebral palsy, immunodeficiency, congenital heart disorders, renal or liver failure were excluded from analysis. Chest radiography (CXR), electrocardiogram (ECG) and pulse oximetry were routinely performed. Results: Fifty-five children completed the study. The female to male ratio was 1 : 1.1. The mean gestational age was 28 weeks. Twenty-five children were born with a birthweight of less than 1001 g. Mean age at assessment was 5.4 years. Twenty-four children (44%) demonstrated signs or symptoms of current asthma. Only seven children managed to perform the spirometry satisfactorily. One child had low forced vital capacity and one had hyperresponsive airway. The only risk factor found to be associated with current asthma was the birth month, with those children born early in the year at higher risk of developing current asthma. Seventeen of 48 children (35%) had a bodyweight below the third percentile at the corrected age of 1 year. Eleven of these seventeen children (65%) demonstrated catch-up growth at assessment. Abnormal CXR was found in 25 of 40 children (63%). All had normal pulse oximetry and ECG. Conclusions: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia children had a significantly higher risk than the general population of developing current asthma (odds ratio 4.7; 95% confidence interval 3.4,6.5; P<0.0001). The importance of birth month suggests that early life experience is important in the pathogenesis of asthma, even in BPD children. The long-term growth of BPD children was much better than previously reported. [source]


Modelling the origins of managerial ability in agricultural production,

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL & RESOURCE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2009
Peter Nuthall
The efficiency of production from a farm's land, labour and capital is critically dependent on the ability of the farm manager. Yet, while there are studies correlating a wide range of manager-related variables with returns, and, therefore, probably ability, little understanding of the basic determinants of managerial ability exists. Questions such as ,what is the importance of a farmer's family experiences and training in determining the farmer's managerial ability?' need answering. The solution to this, and other, questions will enable determining ways of improving farmers' inherent ability developed both in early, and later, life. In that most decisions on a farm are made intuitively, in contrast to the use of a formal analysis, improving farmers' inherent ability will have a significant payoff. The research reported here uses data from a large stratified random survey of 740 developed farmers (29 per cent had tertiary education, 30 per cent had 4 or more years secondary education) to create a structural equation model of the determinants of managerial ability. The results suggest that a farmer's exposure to experiences is a significant factor in ability, as is the farmer's management style and the family influence on early life experience. [source]


Early childhood factors influencing health-related quality of life in adolescents at 13 years

CHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2004
Elise Maher
Early childhood factors influencing health-related quality of life in adolescents at 13 years . Wilkins, A.J., O'Callaghan, M.J., Najman, J.M., Williams, G.M. & Shuttlewood, G. ( 2004 ) Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health40 , 102 , 109 . Objective To understand the relationship of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) to early life experience. Methodology Eight thousand five hundred and fifty-six women enrolled in a prospective study at their first antenatal clinic visit. At 13 years, of 5345 women remaining, a consecutive sample of 901 mother/child pairs provided data on adolescent HRQOL using the Child Health Questionnaire-Parent Report form (CHQ-PF50) and the Dartmouth COOP Functional Assessment Charts for Adolescents. The CHQ-PF50 yielded physical (PHS) and psychosocial (PSS) summary scores. We examined the relationship between HRQOL and early childhood predictive variables. Results PHS was related to gestation, maternal health symptoms in pregnancy, maternal anxiety at 6 months, child health and hours of childcare at 5 years (P < 0.05). PSS was related to maternal age at index visit, maternal attitude to pregnancy, maternal satisfaction with caregiving and maternal depression at 6 months, and child health and behaviour problems at 5 years (internalizing and social/attentional/thought (SAT) domains) (P < 0.05). Findings from adolescent self-reports were similar. Conclusions This study has identified a number of early childhood determinants of adolescent HRQOL. These findings add to the evidence of the effects of early adversity on the developmental pathways of children and support the need for effective early intervention. [source]


Maternally separated rats show deficits in maternal care in adulthood

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 1 2001
Vedran Lovic
Abstract Although there is considerable research on the phenomenology, neuroendocrinology, neuroanatomy, and sensory control of maternal behavior, little is known about the influences of early postnatal and postweaning experiences on the development of maternal behavior. The purpose of this study was to assess how early life separation from the mother rat affects development of the offspring's juvenile and adult maternal behavior. From postnatal Days 1 to 17, 3 female rats within each litter were separated (SEP) from the mother and the rest of the litter for 5 hr daily while 3 of their sisters were not maternally separated (NSEP). On postnatal Day 21, all subjects were weaned and randomly assigned to one of three juvenile conditions. One female from both SEP and NSEP groups was either isolated (I), given a social conspecific (S), or given 1- to 4-day-old pups (P) for 5 consecutive days. Maternal behavior of SEP and NSEP animals was assessed and recorded on each of the 5 days. Once all animals reached adulthood, they were mated, gave birth, and were assessed for their maternal behavior. We found that the effects of maternal separation on juvenile maternal-like behaviors were minimal. On the other hand, maternal separation reduced adult maternal licking and crouching over pups. In addition, there was a significant interaction between postnatal and juvenile experience on maternal crouching in maternal animals. These results are discussed in terms of the variety of possible behavioral, endocrine, and neurochemical mechanisms that mediate the effects of early life experiences on adult maternal behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 39: 19,33, 2001 [source]


Ethanol Attenuates Spatial Memory Deficits and Increases mGlu1a Receptor Expression in the Hippocampus of Rats Exposed to Prenatal Stress

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 8 2009
Vincent Van Waes
Background:, Although it is generally believed that chronic ethanol consumption impairs learning and memory, results obtained in experimental animals are not univocal, and there are conditions in which ethanol paradoxically improves cognitive functions. In the present work, we investigated the effects of prenatal stress and of chronic ethanol exposure during adulthood on spatial memory in rats. Methods:, Rats were subjected to a prenatal stress delivered as 3 daily 45-minute sections of restraint stress to the mothers during the last 10 days of pregnancy (PRS rats). After 7 months of ethanol exposure (ethanol 10%, oral intake), memory performances were evaluated in a spatial discrimination test in control and PRS male rats. Then, the oxidative damages and the expression of metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors were assessed in their hippocampus. Results:, Chronic ethanol exposure resulted in a reduced performance in a spatial recognition task in control animals. Unexpectedly, however, the same treatment attenuated spatial memory deficits in rats that had been subjected to prenatal stress. This paradigm of ethanol administration did not produce detectable signs of oxidative damage in the hippocampus in either unstressed or PRS rats. Interestingly, ethanol intake resulted in differential effects in the expression of mGlu receptor subtypes implicated in mechanisms of learning and memory. In control rats, ethanol intake reduced mGlu2/3 and mGlu5 receptor levels in the hippocampus; in PRS rats, which exhibited a constitutive reduction in the levels of these mGlu receptor subtypes, ethanol increased the expression of mGlu1a receptors but did not change the expression of mGlu2/3 or mGlu5 receptors. Conclusion:, Our findings support the idea that stress-related events occurring before birth have long-lasting effects on brain function and behavior, and suggest that the impact of ethanol on cognition is not only dose- and duration-dependent, but also critically influenced by early life experiences. [source]


Genetic and Other Contributions to Alcohol Intake in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta)

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 3 2006
Joseph G. Lorenz
Background: The etiology of alcoholism and alcohol abuse, like many other complex diseases, is heterogeneous and multifactorial. Numerous studies demonstrate a genetic contribution to variation in the expression of alcohol-related disorders in humans. Over the past decade, nonhuman primates have emerged as a valuable model for some aspects of human alcohol abuse because of their phylogenetic proximity to humans. Long-term, longitudinal studies of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) have provided much insight into environmental influences, especially early life experiences, on alcohol consumption and behavior patterns that characterize alcohol intake later in life. It is not known, however, whether there is a genetic component as well to the variation seen in alcohol consumption in rhesus macaques. A significant genetic component to variation in alcohol consumption in rhesus macaques would show for the first time that like humans, for nonhuman primates additive genetic influences are important. Moreover, their use as a model for alcohol-related disorders in humans would have even greater relevance and utility for designing experiments incorporating the expanding molecular genetics field, and allow researchers to investigate the interaction among the known environmental influences and various genotypes. Methods: In this study, we investigate factors contributing to variation in alcohol consumption of 156 rhesus macaques collected over 10 years when subjects were adolescent in age, belonging to a single extended pedigree, with each cohort receiving identical early rearing backgrounds and subsequent treatments. To measure alcohol consumption each animal was provided unfettered simultaneous access both to an aspartame-sweetened 8.4% (v/v) alcohol-water solution, the aspartame-sweetened vehicle, and to water for 1 hour each day during the early afternoon between 13:00 and 15:00 in their home cages for a period of 5 to 7 weeks. We use multiple regression to identify factors that significantly affect alcohol consumption among these animals and a maximum likelihood program (ASReml) that, controlling for the significant factors, estimates the genetic contribution to the variance in alcohol consumption. Results: Multiple regression analysis identified test cohort and rearing environment as contributing to 57 and 2%, respectively, of the total variance in alcohol consumption. Of the remaining 41% of the variance about half (19.8%) was attributable to additive genetic effects using a maximum likelihood program. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that, as in humans, there are additive genetic factors that contribute to variation in alcohol consumption in rhesus macaques, with other nongenetic factors accounting for substantial portions of the variance in alcohol consumption, Our findings show the presence of an additive genetic component and suggest the potential utility of the nonhuman primate as a molecular genetics tool for understanding alcohol abuse and alcoholism. [source]


Short and Prolonged Periods of Maternal Separation and Voluntary Ethanol Intake in Male and Female Ethanol-Preferring AA and Ethanol-Avoiding ANA Rats

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 4 2005
Erika Roman
Background: Genetic as well as environmental factors can affect the propensity for psychopathology and/or drug dependence. Maternal separation represents an animal experimental model that is useful in studies of effects of early life experiences. The authors have established a protocol for short and prolonged periods of maternal separation to study adult neurochemistry, behavior, and ethanol intake and have previously reported alterations in ethanol intake in Wistar rats and ethanol-preferring rats. The aim of the current study was to more thoroughly study how early life experiences affect an inherited propensity for high and low ethanol intake, respectively, in male and female ethanol-preferring AA (Alko alcohol) and ethanol-avoiding ANA (Alko, Non-Alcohol) rats. Methods: AA and ANA pups were assigned to one of three different rearing conditions: 15 min (MS15) or 360 min (MS360) of daily maternal separation in litters or normal animal facility rearing (AFR) during postnatal days 1 to 21. In adulthood, voluntary ethanol intake was investigated using the two-bottle free choice paradigm. Results: In male ethanol-preferring AA rats, MS15 resulted in a lower intake and fewer high-preferring animals at 8% and 10% ethanol compared with MS360 rats. The male MS360 rats had a higher ethanol intake at 8% and 10% ethanol in comparison with AFR rats. In contrast, the female AA MS15 and MS360 rats had a lower ethanol intake and a lower preference for the 10% ethanol solution compared with the female AA AFR rats. In male and female ANA rats, no major separation-induced effects were found. Conclusions: The current results show that genetic inheritance can be affected by environmental manipulations in AA rats with an inherent high ethanol intake. The findings in female ethanol-preferring AA rats give further evidence of a differential outcome of maternal separation in male and female rats, as previously shown. [source]


Prevention or therapy and the politics of trust: inspiring a new human agenda,

PSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2005
James W. Prescott PhD
Abstract This paper gives a brief overview of the developmental origins of human alienation, depression, violence and drug abuse. It provides a foundation for understanding how the politics of culture structure the human condition. The most critical early life experiences are formed in the mother-infant/child relationship. This affects all future relationships and the development of culture. The role of body pleasure in affectional bonding in the mother-infant/child relationship and in the human sexual relationship will be shown to be an important factor in the formation of non-violence in the individual and in human cultures. It will be shown that basic trust must occur before a politics of trust can be formed to effect changes at the individual and cultural levels and to transform violent individuals and cultures into peaceful individuals and cultures. The limitations of psychotherapy (which involves neocortical brain process) in effecting changes in the damaged emotional social sexual brain (which involves the subcortical brain) will be illustrated. Cultural conditions for the development of the neurointegrative brain, which mediates healthy behaviors, versus the development of the neurodissociative brain, which mediates dysfunctional behaviors, will be given. As culture shapes the developing brain, so the brain shapes culture. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]