Interactive effects of genotype and early life undernutrition on the development of behavior in rats

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Abstract
Developing rats of 2 outbred stocks were either well‐nourished or undernourished by underfeeding their mothers throughout pregnancy and lactation. All rats were well‐fed from 25 days of age. Starting at 110 days male rats were observed first in an open field and then in a social situation; finally their motor performance was tested on a revolving drum. The social behavior test comprised pairing male rats of the same stock, 1 well‐fed control with 1 previously undernourished rat. Analysis of variance of the results of the open‐field and social behavior tests revealed main effects of Nutrition and of Stock for several measures of behavior in each test. There were also Nutrition X Stock interactions for 2 measures from the open field and 1 from the social situation. Motor performance was not impaired by early life undernutrition. The evidence of Nutrition X Stock interactions, together with that from analyses of the effects of nutrition performed separately for the 2 stocks, as if each stock had been investigated in a separate study, indicates that genotypic differences may be one of the reasons for the discordance often found between the conclusions of different early life malnutrition studies.