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Behavioral Patterns and Brain Nucleic Acid and Pyridoxal Phosphate Contents of Male Rat Progeny from Vitamin B-6-repleted Dams^1,2,

Departments of Nutrition & Foods and of Psychology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36830

The effects of vitamin B-6 repletion at various stages of development were evaluated by biochemical and behavioral parameters. Five groups of dams received diets containing suboptimal, 15 µg, and one group, control, 90 µg, levels of pyridoxine daily 2 weeks before mating. Three groups of dams fed suboptimal levels were switched to the control diet 2 weeks after conception, at parturition, or 1 week after parturition. At weaning, male offspring were fed the same pyridoxine level as their respective dams except one group whose dams were fed the suboptimal diet received the control. Behavioral tests were administered at 50 days of age. Rats fed suboptimal diets and those receiving B-6 repletion at weaning tended to have lower activity scores, significantly lower curiosity scores, somewhat fewer correct tone discrimination responses, and significantly different distributions of timing responses than other rats. Brains from these same two groups of rats had significantly lower DNA, RNA and protein contents. Nonrepleted animals had significantly lower brain pyridoxal phosphate values than those that received vitamin repletion at or before weaning. The biochemical and behavioral assessments were in general agreement and were mutually supportive. Curiosity and timing behavior are proposed as standard criteria in animal learning studies.

KEY WORDS: • vitamin B-6 repletion • behavioral patterns of rats • brain pyridoxal phosphate content • brain nucleic acid composition

¹ Supported in part by Alabama Agriculture Experiment Station and Department of Psychology, Auburn University.

² These data were presented in part at the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 1973. Federation Proc. 32, 909 (abstr.).

³ Present address: Department of Food & Nutrition, School of Home Economics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306.

Manuscript received 24 July 1973.