The ability to remember and use information accurately is very important, and impairments of visuospatial memory profoundly disrupt and individual's life. These observations motivate research to understand the brain mechanisms involved in normal memory processing, and the types of lifespan developmental changes that produce memory dysfunctions and amnesia. At the same time it is of critical importance to understand the early developmental stages that brain and behavior processes go through in terms of defining memory function in later life. previous work in rats, monkeys, and humans has demonstrated that modification of frontal and temporal lobe structures, particularly the hippocampus and frontal cortex, produce behavioural changes that have some of the basic characteristics of an amnesic syndrome. The purpose of the present proposal is to investigate further our recent findings that indicate the potential for organization changes in these same structures that subserve visuospatial memory by exposing the developing nervous system to choline supplementation. Such perinatal choline supplementation has produced relatively permanent changes in the spatial ability of rats treated during specified periods (embryonic days 12-17 and postnatal days 15-30). The behavioral changes have been interpreted as reflecting an increase in memory capacity and precision. One of the major goals is to determine if there are any negative consequences of these treatments that might be revealed by the recruitment of normal aging processes. In this regard, we will investigate the three possibilities that perinatal choline supplementation either has a) a positive effect on the accuracy of visuospatial memory as a function of aging, b) a neutral effect on visuopatial memory as a function of aging. These behavioral data will stimulate additional studies of the anatomical and neurochemical basis of these effects.
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