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Avoidance Behavior in Vitamin B-6-Deficient Rats¹

Department of Psychology, Franklin and Marshall College, and Research Institute, St. Joseph Hospital, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604

Pyridoxine deficiency was induced during the postweaning period in infant and young adult male rats and the effects on active avoidance and escape learning were studied. Five weeks of pyridoxine deficiency was sufficient to produce a deficit in active avoidance learning in the postweanling animals, whereas up to 10 weeks of deficient diet ingestion produced no effect on young adult animals. Mild motor impairment was produced in the young pyridoxine-deficient rats but the avoidance learning deficit could not be explained away on this basis, because a deficit in passive avoidance was also produced by the deficiency. Reversal of the deficiency by pyridoxine injection restored the active avoidance learning to normal within 1 week.

KEY WORDS: • pyridoxine • avoidance learning • escape learning

¹ This research was supported by National Institutes of Health (NS 05789, NS 07361, and GRS RR 05657), U.S. Public Health Service.

Manuscript received 21 October 1974.