Mendez-Gallardo Valerie, Roberto Megan E, Kauer Sierra D, Brumley Michele R
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, Brandywine, United States.
Department of Psychology, Idaho State University, United States.
Physiol Behav. 2016 Mar 1;155:122-30. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.12.001. Epub 2015 Dec 3.
The development of postural control is considered an important factor for the expression of coordinated behavior such as locomotion. In the natural setting of the nest, newborn rat pups adapt their posture to perform behaviors of ecological relevance such as those related to suckling. The current study explores the role of posture in the expression of three behaviors in the newborn rat: spontaneous limb activity, locomotor-like stepping behavior, and the leg extension response (LER). One-day-old rat pups were tested in one of two postures--prone or supine--on each of these behavioral measures. Results showed that pups expressed more spontaneous activity while supine, more stepping while prone, and no differences in LER expression between the two postures. Together these findings show that posture affects the expression of newborn behavior patterns in different ways, and suggest that posture may act as a facilitator or a limiting factor in the expression of different behaviors during early development.
姿势控制的发展被认为是诸如运动等协调行为表现的一个重要因素。在巢穴的自然环境中，新生大鼠幼崽会调整自己的姿势以执行具有生态相关性的行为，比如与哺乳相关的行为。当前的研究探讨了姿势在新生大鼠三种行为表现中的作用：自发肢体活动、类似运动的踏步行为以及腿部伸展反应（LER）。对1日龄的大鼠幼崽在这两种姿势（俯卧或仰卧）中的每一种下进行这些行为测量测试。结果表明，幼崽仰卧时表现出更多的自发活动，俯卧时表现出更多的踏步行为，并且两种姿势下的LER表现没有差异。这些发现共同表明，姿势以不同方式影响新生行为模式的表现，并表明姿势可能在早期发育过程中作为不同行为表现的促进因素或限制因素。
