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Varying Deficits in Visual Discrimination Performance Associated with Different Forms of Malnutrition in Rats

Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

Visual discrimination at 3 months of age was examined by the Lashley jumping stand test to rats malnourished by one of the following techniques: intergenerational malnutrition over 14 to 18 generations; protein deficiency from birth on; rearing in large litters, and rotation among lactating and non-lactating females. All four treatments caused stunting during the litter period, but only the first two were associated with reduced weights at the time of testing. Deficits in visual discrimination were most severe in males and females with intergenerational malnutrition. Both large-litter rearing and protein deficiency for one generation impaired visual discrimination in males only, whereas rotation between lactating and non-lactating females did not reduce visual discrimination in either gender. It is possible that extranutritional factors associated with each type of malnutrition may serve either to enhance or diminish the impact of malnutrition on the nervous system.

KEY WORDS: • malnutrition • large-litter rearing • rotation of litters • protein deficiency • intergenerational malnutrition • Lashley test • visual discrimination • gender effects • rats

¹ And Division of Psychiatry, Boston University Medical Center, Boston, MA. Address reprint requests to Janina R. Galler, Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center, 85 E. Newton St., Boston, MA 02118.

² Department of Psychology, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY.

³ Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, and Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY.

Manuscript received 18 May 1979.