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Early maternal availability and prefrontal correlates of reward-related memory NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY Lyons, D. M., Schatzberg, A. F. 2003; 80 (2): 97-104

Abstract

Early emotional experiences affect developing brain systems that subsequently mediate adult learning and memory in rodents. Here we test for similar effects in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) four years after disruptions in early maternal availability. These conditions were previously shown to generate differences in emotional behavior, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal stress physiology, and right ventral medial prefrontal volumes determined in adulthood by magnetic resonance imaging. This report identifies in the same monkeys variability in reward-related memory on tests with a spatial reversal. Adult monkeys that more often selected locations repeatedly rewarded before each reversal had larger right ventral medial prefrontal volumes, but not hippocampal nor dorsolateral prefrontal volumes on the left or right brain side. Differences in performance were also discerned after each spatial reversal. These findings indicate that maternal availability alters developing ventral medial prefrontal brain regions involved in reward-related memory.

View details for DOI 10.1016/S1074-7427(03)00044-3

View details for Web of Science ID 000185048500001

View details for PubMedID 12932424