Ozkan Suheda, Oz Pınar, Erdogan Yaren, Akpinar Melisa, Sahsahi Aya, Gecen Zehra
Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Uskudar University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2025 Feb;85(1):e10404. doi: 10.1002/jdn.10404. Epub 2024 Dec 12.
It is well known that sensory information driven from whiskers serves as an example of tactile perception in rodents, and plays an important role in social behavior, environmental exploration, and decision-making processes, the influence of manipulations performed during the development of whiskers, on learning has been received little attention in the literature. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of tactile stimulation (TS) on spatial memory performance and neuronal density in the hippocampus during adulthood in early sensory-deprived rats. Wistar albino male rats were divided into four groups: control (CTL), bilateral whisker trimming (BWT), tactile stimulation (TS), and bilateral whisker trimming+tactile stimulation (BWT + TS). All whiskers were trimmed between P0-10, a critical period for whisker development. TS was applied from P3 to P21 using a soft brush. In this study, the 8-arm radial maze test was conducted from postnatal days 77 to 81 to assess spatial memory Animals sacrificed by intracardial perfusion and neuronal density in CA1, CA3, vDG, and dDG regions of the hippocampus were evaluated by Nissl staining. TS exposure negatively affected spatial memory performance and hippocampal neuronal density compared to BWT. We conclude that TS in healthy offspring can cause stress by interrupting maternal care, given the vulnerability of early development. On the contrary, the sensory deprivation protocol in this study was terminated at a time of high homeostatic plasticity and did not produce complete whisker deprivation, have triggered learning by inducing moderate stress early in development.
众所周知，来自胡须的感觉信息是啮齿动物触觉感知的一个例子，并且在社会行为、环境探索和决策过程中发挥着重要作用，然而，在文献中，胡须发育过程中所进行的操作对学习的影响却很少受到关注。本研究旨在评估早期感觉剥夺大鼠成年后触觉刺激（TS）对空间记忆表现和海马体神经元密度的影响。将Wistar白化雄性大鼠分为四组：对照组（CTL）、双侧胡须修剪组（BWT）、触觉刺激组（TS）和双侧胡须修剪+触觉刺激组（BWT + TS）。所有胡须在P0 - 10期间进行修剪，这是胡须发育的关键时期。从P3到P21使用软刷施加TS。在本研究中，在出生后第77天至81天进行8臂放射状迷宫测试以评估空间记忆。通过心脏灌注处死动物，并通过尼氏染色评估海马体CA1、CA3、vDG和dDG区域的神经元密度。与BWT相比，TS暴露对空间记忆表现和海马体神经元密度产生负面影响。我们得出结论，鉴于早期发育的脆弱性，健康后代中的TS可能通过中断母性照顾而导致应激。相反，本研究中的感觉剥夺方案在高稳态可塑性时期终止，并且没有产生完全的胡须剥夺，而是通过在发育早期诱导适度应激触发了学习。
