Very low birth weight piglets show improved cognitive performance in the spatial cognitive holeboard task

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Alexandra AntonidesFranz Josef van der Staay

Abstract

Low birth weight (LBW) is common in humans and has been found to cause lasting cognitive and developmental deficits later in life. It is thought that the primary cause is intra-uterine growth restriction (IUGR) due to a shortage of oxygen and supply of nutrients to the fetus. Pigs appear to be a good model animal to investigate long-term cognitive effects of LBW, as LBW is common in commercially farmed breeds of pigs. Moreover, pigs are developmentally similar to humans and can be trained to perform complex tasks. In this study, we trained ten very low birth weight (vLBW) piglets and their ten normal birth weight (NBW) siblings in a spatial cognitive holeboard task in order to investigate long-term cognitive effects of LBW. In this task, four out of sixteen holes contain a hidden food reward, which allows measuring working memory (WM) (short-term memory) and reference memory (RM) (long-term memory) in parallel. Piglets were trained for 46-54 trials during the acquisition phase, followed by a 20-trial reversal phase in which a different set of four holes was baited. Both groups acquired the task and improved their performance over time. A mixed model repeated measures ANOVA revealed that vLBW piglets showed better RM performance...Continue Reading

References

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Mar 26, 2013·Animal Cognition·Eimear MurphyFranz Josef van der Staay

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Citations

Jun 12, 2016·Physiology & Behavior·Damien S HunterKathryn L Gatford
Jul 6, 2016·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Alexandra AntonidesRebecca E Nordquist
May 3, 2019·Animal Cognition·Sanne RoelofsRebecca E Nordquist
Mar 18, 2016·FASEB Journal : Official Publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology·Caroline ClouardJ Elizabeth Bolhuis
Feb 9, 2017·FASEB Journal : Official Publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology·David Val-LailletCaroline Clouard
Jun 20, 2020·New Zealand Veterinary Journal·A L SoraciF A Amanto
Sep 4, 2018·Frontiers in Veterinary Science·Emily V BushbyLisa M Collins
Nov 19, 2015·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Alexandra AntonidesFranz Josef van der Staay
Jul 13, 2018·Frontiers in Veterinary Science·Sanne RoelofsRebecca E Nordquist

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
SGA
ELISA

Software Mentioned

LabJack
SAS

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