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Multiple “Hits” During Postnatal And Early Adulthood Periods Disrupt The Normal Development Of Sensorimotor Gating Ability In Rats, Jing Chen, Zucheng Wang, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In the present study, we evaluated a multiple-hit animal model of schizophrenia in an attempt to capture the complex interactions among various adverse developmental factors in schizophrenia. Sprague–Dawley rats were assigned to receive either repeated daily 3-h maternal separation for eight days (first “hit”) on postnatal days (PND) 3 to 10, and/or avoidance conditioning for six days (second “hit”) on PND 49–56, and/or repeated phencyclidine treatment (third “hit”, 3.0 mg/kg, sc) immediately after each daily avoidance conditioning. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of acoustic startle reflex was assessed at late adolescence (PND 41–43) and early adulthood (PND 62–63). The change in %PPI …