Biomaterial Database

Traumatic brain injury in the developing rat: effects of maturation on Morris water maze acquisition. 1998

M L Prins, and D A Hovda

Division of Neurosurgery, UCLA School of Medicine, Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Previous work has demonstrated that postnatal and adult rats show different physiological responses to lateral fluid percussion (FP) brain injury. Compared to adult animals, the younger rats showed longer apnea and shorter unconsciousness, and sustained hypotension at all injury severities, with higher mortality following severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). To determine if these younger rats exhibit differential cognitive impairments, the Morris water maze (MWM) was used to compare the degree of spatial learning deficits between moderately injured postnatal day 17 (P17), P28, and adult rats, as well as their age-matched controls. Comparisons between shams of different ages showed a maturational time course for MWM acquisition, where adult rats learned the task 34-58% faster than younger age groups. Injured adults showed escape latency deficits throughout the entire training period, took 39% fewer direct paths to the platform during training, took 24% longer to reach criterion performance, and showed poor probe trial performance than adult shams. Injured P28s exhibited escape latency deficits during the first week, with 23% more trials to criterion and 24% fewer direct paths compared to P28 shams. In contrast, injured P17 rats showed no significant difference from age-matched controls in terms of escape latency, number of direct paths taken, or time to criterion performance. This work suggests that, upon surviving the insult, P17 injured rats show remarkable sparing compared to P28 and adult injured animals.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009949	Orientation	Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person.	Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D011930	Reaction Time	The time from the onset of a stimulus until a response is observed.	Response Latency,Response Speed,Response Time,Latency, Response,Reaction Times,Response Latencies,Response Times,Speed, Response,Speeds, Response
D012153	Retention, Psychology	The persistence to perform a learned behavior (facts or experiences) after an interval has elapsed in which there has been no performance or practice of the behavior.	Psychological Retention,Retention (Psychology),Psychology Retention,Retention, Psychological
D001921	Brain	The part of CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM that is contained within the skull (CRANIUM). Arising from the NEURAL TUBE, the embryonic brain is comprised of three major parts including PROSENCEPHALON (the forebrain); MESENCEPHALON (the midbrain); and RHOMBENCEPHALON (the hindbrain). The developed brain consists of CEREBRUM; CEREBELLUM; and other structures in the BRAIN STEM.	Encephalon
D001930	Brain Injuries	Acute and chronic (see also BRAIN INJURIES, CHRONIC) injuries to the brain, including the cerebral hemispheres, CEREBELLUM, and BRAIN STEM. Clinical manifestations depend on the nature of injury. Diffuse trauma to the brain is frequently associated with DIFFUSE AXONAL INJURY or COMA, POST-TRAUMATIC. Localized injuries may be associated with NEUROBEHAVIORAL MANIFESTATIONS; HEMIPARESIS, or other focal neurologic deficits.	Brain Lacerations,Acute Brain Injuries,Brain Injuries, Acute,Brain Injuries, Focal,Focal Brain Injuries,Injuries, Acute Brain,Injuries, Brain,Acute Brain Injury,Brain Injury,Brain Injury, Acute,Brain Injury, Focal,Brain Laceration,Focal Brain Injury,Injuries, Focal Brain,Injury, Acute Brain,Injury, Brain,Injury, Focal Brain,Laceration, Brain,Lacerations, Brain
D003072	Cognition Disorders	Disorders characterized by disturbances in mental processes related to learning, thinking, reasoning, and judgment.	Overinclusion,Disorder, Cognition,Disorders, Cognition
D004195	Disease Models, Animal	Naturally-occurring or experimentally-induced animal diseases with pathological processes analogous to human diseases.	Animal Disease Model,Animal Disease Models,Disease Model, Animal
D000367	Age Factors	Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.	Age Reporting,Age Factor,Factor, Age,Factors, Age
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia