Associative learning in neonatal rats revealed by cardiac response patterns.

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Abstract
Tested whether heart rate (HR) responses could measure learning in infant rats and assessed the effects of odor-temperature pairings on HR. In Exp I, the 15 infant rat pups (3-4 days of age) that received a single pairing of a novel odor (CS) with illness later responded to the CS with sustained accelerations in HR; a different novel odor evoked deceleratory HR responses. The 29 control pups responded to the CS and the 2nd novel odor with cardiac deceleration. In Exp II with 73 Ss, those that received 3 pairings of a novel odor with a cold (10|C) temperature reinforcement displayed a similar pattern of HR responses, i.e., acceleration to the CS and deceleration to the novel odor. The authors conclude that cardiac response patterns are a useful measure of learning in infant mammals. The directional modulations of HR found in the present experiments correspond to previous interpretations of "orienting" and "defensive" reactions derived from studies of HR responses in humans. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

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