[Effect of early food deprivation on elaboration and preservation of a defensive conditioned reflex in rats].

A study was made of the influence of unlimited vs. insufficient feeding with mother's milk of fifteen litters of rats in early postnatal period on the rate of "incomplete" twofold learning (elaboration of a conditioned avoidance reflex) at the age of 30 and 90 days, and the degree of retention of conditioned reflexes in 30-second, 24-hour and two months intervals. The experiments were carried out in Fyodorov's modification of the apparatus with program control. A conditioned reflex of active avoidance of electric current was elaborated in response to a photic signal. It has been established that unlimited feeding of young rats with mother's milk has a positive influence in the early postnatal period on the general development, on the rate of twofold learning and the level of retention of a conditioned reflex, while unsufficient feeding has a negative influence on these characteristics.