Abstract

The four Specific Aims of this proposal will advance our understanding of behavioral and neurological developmental processes.
Specific Aim I will identify how olfactory experience during nursing determines adult sexual behavior.
Specific Aim II explores the mechanisms that underlie weaning. Through judicious rearing we have been able to extend suckling through the time of sexual maturity.
In Specific Aim III I will analyze the contribution of the endogenous opioid systems to different motivational and associative states in very young (Day 5) rats. We have already obtained large learned preferences for substances associated with very low morphine doses (0.5 mg/kg).
Specific Aim I V is concerned with central development. It will study the ontogeny of negative affect through electrical stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus. We have already discovered that such stimulation elicits unmistakably aversive behavior in Day 3 rats. We will also identify by 2-DG autoradiography neural tissue that is differently activated during the MFB stimulation that elicits complex motor behaviors. This approach will also be used in an effort to identify central tissue involved in olfactory conditioning in Day 3 rats.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIADDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AM018560-11
Application #
3151148
Study Section
Biopsychology Study Section (BPO)
Project Start
1978-06-01
Project End
1987-05-31
Budget Start
1985-06-01
Budget End
1986-05-31
Support Year
11
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
Johns Hopkins University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
045911138
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21218

  Publications

Blass, Elliott (2015) Energy conservation in infants. Behav Processes 117:35-41
Cramer, C P; Pfister, J P; Haig, K A (1988) Experience during suckling alters later spatial learning. Dev Psychobiol 21:1-24
Williams, C L; Blass, E M (1987) Development of postglucoprivic insulin-induced suckling and feeding in rats. Am J Physiol 253:R121-7
Blass, E; Fitzgerald, E; Kehoe, P (1987) Interactions between sucrose, pain and isolation distress. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 26:483-9
Kehoe, P; Blass, E M (1986) Conditioned aversions and their memories in 5-day-old rats during suckling. J Exp Psychol Anim Behav Process 12:40-7
Kehoe, P; Blass, E M (1986) Behaviorally functional opioid systems in infant rats: II. Evidence for pharmacological, physiological, and psychological mediation of pain and stress. Behav Neurosci 100:624-30
Fillion, T J; Blass, E M (1986) Infantile experience with suckling odors determines adult sexual behavior in male rats. Science 231:729-31
Kehoe, P; Blass, E M (1986) Behaviorally functional opioid systems in infant rats: I. Evidence for olfactory and gustatory classical conditioning. Behav Neurosci 100:359-67
Kehoe, P; Blass, E M (1986) Opioid-mediation of separation distress in 10-day-old rats: reversal of stress with maternal stimuli. Dev Psychobiol 19:385-98
Kehoe, P; Blass, E M (1985) Gustatory determinants of suckling in albino rats 5-20 days of age. Dev Psychobiol 18:67-82

Showing the most recent 10 out of 11 publications