Event Title

Prenatal choline availability, exposure time thresholds, and object recognition memory in adult Sprague Dawley rats

Presenter Information

Waylin Yu, Colby CollegeFollow

Location

Diamond 242

Start Date

30-4-2015 3:30 PM

End Date

30-4-2015 3:55 PM

Project Type

Presentation

Description

Choline is an essential nutrient for early brain development and cognition. Previous research has shown that cholinergic functioning is important for recognition memory. In rats, a prenatally supplemented choline diet can protect against memory consolidation deficits. However, whether greater choline availability affects the various memory encoding processes that precede consolidation is unknown. Furthermore, despite two decades of use as a behavioral measure for recognition memory, adequate study time for encoding a familiar object in the novel object recognition task has yet to be established. The present set of experiments sought to answer these questions by assessing object recognition memory following assorted exposure times (20, 25, and 30 seconds) in rats given standard and supplemented prenatal dietary treatments of choline. The study revealed that rats with greater prenatal choline availability required less time to properly encode an object, and, by consequence, produce adequate memory for it later on.

Faculty Sponsor

Melissa Glenn

Sponsoring Department

Colby College. Psychology Dept.

CLAS Field of Study

Social Sciences

Event Website

http://www.colby.edu/clas

ID

1512

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Apr 30th, 3:30 PM Apr 30th, 3:55 PM

Prenatal choline availability, exposure time thresholds, and object recognition memory in adult Sprague Dawley rats

Diamond 242

Choline is an essential nutrient for early brain development and cognition. Previous research has shown that cholinergic functioning is important for recognition memory. In rats, a prenatally supplemented choline diet can protect against memory consolidation deficits. However, whether greater choline availability affects the various memory encoding processes that precede consolidation is unknown. Furthermore, despite two decades of use as a behavioral measure for recognition memory, adequate study time for encoding a familiar object in the novel object recognition task has yet to be established. The present set of experiments sought to answer these questions by assessing object recognition memory following assorted exposure times (20, 25, and 30 seconds) in rats given standard and supplemented prenatal dietary treatments of choline. The study revealed that rats with greater prenatal choline availability required less time to properly encode an object, and, by consequence, produce adequate memory for it later on.

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/362