An n-3 fatty acid deficiency impairs rat spatial learning in the Barnes maze
Fedorova, Irina; Hussein, Nahed Mohamed; Baumann, Michael H; Di Martino, Carmine; Salem, Norman;
Abstract
In this study, the authors demonstrate that rats with n-3 fatty acid deficiency display spatial learning deficits in the Barnes circular maze. Dams were deprived of n-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and lactation, and their offspring were weaned to the same deficient diet. There was a 58% loss of brain docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in the n-3 fatty acid-deficient rats in comparison to n-3 fatty acid-adequate rats. At 8 weeks of age, deficient rats demonstrated moderate impairment in Barnes maze performance compared with the n-3 fatty acid-adequate rats during the initial training. In the reversal learning task, the n-3 fatty acid-deficient rats showed a profound deficit in performance: They required more time to find a new position of the escape tunnel, which was accompanied by a higher number of errors and perseverations. The n-3 fatty acid-deficient rats had reduced tissue levels of dopamine in the ventral striatum and enhanced levels of the metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid in frontal cortex and hypothalamus. In summary, this study demonstrates that rats with low brain DHA have a deficit in spatial reversal learning that could be related to changes in dopamine transmission in critical brain circuits.
Other data
Title | An n-3 fatty acid deficiency impairs rat spatial learning in the Barnes maze | Authors | Fedorova, Irina; Hussein, Nahed Mohamed ; Baumann, Michael H; Di Martino, Carmine; Salem, Norman | Keywords | docosahexaenoic acid; DHA; n-3 fatty acid deficiency; Barnes maze; reversal teaming; NUCLEUS-ACCUMBENS; SEROTONINERGIC NEUROTRANSMISSION; FRONTAL-CORTEX; DOCOSAPENTAENOIC ACID; DOPAMINERGIC-NEURONS; DIETARY DEFICIENCY; TASK-PERFORMANCE; BRAIN-FUNCTION; MOUSE MODEL; BEHAVIOR | Issue Date | Feb-2009 | Publisher | AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC | Journal | Behavioral neuroscience | ISSN | 0735-7044 | DOI | 10.1037/a0013801 | PubMed ID | 19170444 | Scopus ID | 2-s2.0-60549090998 | Web of science ID | WOS:000262796400020 |
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