Intergenerational effects of maternal separation on cognitive abilities of adolescent rats
Sara Joushi, Khadijeh Esmaeilpour, Zahra Taherizadeh, Farahnaz Taheri, Vahid Sheibani
Abstract
Abstract Early life adversity (ELA) is a predisposing factor for the development of behavioral and emotional disorders later in life. In humans, primates and rodents, interruption in the mother–infant relationships, and disorganized maternal care negatively influence appropriate behavioral responses and may cause cognitive deficits. Epidemiological studies suggest that ELA‐induced behavioral alterations can be transmitted across generations. In this study, we investigated the cognitive abilities of male and female rats in the second filial (F 2 ) generations whose mother, father, or both of their parents were undergoing a 180 min/day maternal separation (MS) paradigm during infancy (postnatal day (PND) 1‐21). Cognitive abilities (in the open field, Morris water maze, and social interaction task) of F 2 pups were tested during adolescence. Our results showed that although the mother‐MS group of both sexes showed normal cognitive behavior, father‐MS female pups showed more anxiety in the open field, and social interaction and spatial memory impaired in this group. These impairments were not pronounced in every detail in father‐MS male pups. Moreover, rat pups that both parents experienced MS during infancy, showed normal cognitive behavior. Our data support the idea that MS‐induced cognitive impairments could be transmitted across generations. Considerably, the experiences of one's parents could be inherited in the following generation in a sex‐dependent manner.