Effects of Pre-and Neonatal Undernutrition on Long-Term Hearing Cognition of the Rat

Experimental evidence in the rat suggests that perinatal undernutrition, associated with sensory and hormonal deficiencies, interferes with brain network integrative actions. We review peripheral and central morpho-functional alterations related to early food restriction along with the auditory relays, and their connections with the limbic system, which are essential for motivation-emotional arousal. The findings indicated that different morpho-functional alterations in the auditory system permanently affect the brainstem, the reticular thalamic nucleus, and the prefrontal and auditory cortices. Moreover, data showed the noxious role of early food restriction and the external ear occlusion on the distal portions of dendritic arbor measurements, in the cochlea, nucleus ambiguous and motor cortical pyramids. These anatomical alterations also correlated with deficiencies in the dynamic motor and auditory cognitive brain plasticity. Food restriction-related deficiencies in the motor-emotional-behavioral arousal systems may be useful to understand long-term cognitive disorders in humans.