Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2012 May;54(4):423-32. doi: 10.1002/dev.20600. Epub 2011 Sep 27.
Eyeblink classical conditioning in pre-weanling rabbits was examined in the present study. Using a custom lightweight headpiece and restrainer, New Zealand white littermates were trained once daily in 400 ms delay eyeblink classical conditioning from postnatal days (PD) 17-21 or PD 24-28. These ages were chosen because eyeblink conditioning emerges gradually over PD 17-24 in rats [Stanton et al., (1992) Behavioral Neuroscience, 106(4):657-665], another altricial species with neurodevelopmental features similar to those of rabbits. Consistent with well-established findings in rats, rabbits trained from PD 24-28 showed greater conditioning relative to littermates trained from PD 17-21. Both age groups displayed poor retention of eyeblink conditioning at retraining 1 month after acquisition. These findings are the first to demonstrate eyeblink conditioning in the developing rabbit. With further characterization of optimal conditioning parameters, this preparation may have applications to neurodevelopmental disease models as well as research exploring the ontogeny of memory.
本研究考察了未成年幼兔的眨眼条件反射。使用定制的轻便头帽和固定器，从出生后第 17-21 天（PD）或第 24-28 天（PD）开始，每天对新西兰白兔同窝幼仔进行 400 毫秒延迟眨眼条件反射训练。之所以选择这些年龄，是因为在大鼠中，眨眼条件反射在 PD 17-24 期间逐渐出现[Stanton 等人，（1992）行为神经科学，106（4）：657-665]，这是另一种早产儿，其神经发育特征与兔子相似。与在大鼠中建立的可靠发现一致，从 PD 24-28 开始训练的兔子相对于从 PD 17-21 开始训练的同窝幼仔表现出更好的条件反射。两组都在获得后 1 个月重新训练时表现出眨眼条件反射的记忆较差。这些发现是首次在发育中的兔子中证明眨眼条件反射。通过进一步确定最佳条件反射参数，可以将该方法应用于神经发育疾病模型以及探索记忆发生的研究。
