Effects of undernutrition and handling during suckling on shuttle avoidance and footshock escape behavior and on plasma glucose levels of young rats.

The present report examined the effects of undernutrition and handling on shuttle and footshock escape avoidance behavior of female rats. Rats were undernourished by feeding their dams a 7% casein diet from birth until 23 days of life. During this period rats were separated from their dams for 4 to 10 min. On days 23 and 24 after delivery, young rats were subjected to sessions in a two-way shuttle avoidance task. The results demonstrated that nonstimulated and stimulated undernourished and stimulated well-nourished rats escape faster than nonstimulated well-nourished animals from footshock during the first session of shuttle avoidance. Further, undernutrition interacted with early stimulation, disrupting the shuttle avoidance behavior of female rats. These results suggest that both undernutrition and early handling can change the footshock behavior of young rats. Undernourished rats presented lower basal glucose levels than well-nourished animals, but responded to shuttle avoidance testing in the same way as do normal rats, increasing the glucose levels.