Undernutrition and recovery from brain damage: a preliminary investigation.

Rats undernourished early in life did not differ from control animals in acquiring a light-dark discrimination. Posterior cortical lesions impaired retention in both nutritional groups, but the relearning scores of the undernourished animals with lesions were significantly worse than those of the lesion group that had been well fed. Amphetamine was found to enhance recovery, especially in the undernourished group. These data thus show that early nutritional history can be an important factor in accounting for differences in performance following later, focal brain damage, but that pharmacological intervention still can be of great value in these cases.