Figure 2. Cognitive training during adolescence prevents the cognitive control impairment in adult NVHL rats and the benefits generalize beyond the training task.
A. Schematics and timeline of experimental procedures. B. Two-frame avoidance learning during adolescence is similar in NVHL and sham control rats. Inset: total number of entrances (t9 = 0.67, p = 0.52). C. Relative to control performance in session 1 (lesion: F1,19 = 0.12, p = 0.72; treatment: F1,19 = 0.69, p = 0.41; interaction: F1,19 = 0.05, p = 0.81), alternation learning in subsequent sessions was impaired in NVHL rats that were only exposed to the rotating arena during adolescence. Adult NVHL rats that received adolescent training were better that those that were exposed during adolescence: session 2 (t9 = 3.53, p = 0.006), session 3 (t9 = 3.15, p = 0.01), and session 4 (t9 = 4.26, p = 0.002). Comparison of NVHL and control rats that were trained during adolescence: session 2 (t9 = 0.52, p = 0.52), session 3 (t9 = 0.19, p = 0.85), session 4 (t9 = 0.73, p = 0.49). D. Two-frame avoidance of both the original (lesion: F1,19 = 13.01, p = 0.002; treatment: F1,19 = 14.12, p = 0.001; interaction: F1,19 = 10.11, p = 0.005) and reversed shock zone locations (lesion: F1,19 = 12.16, p = 0.003; treatment: F1,19 = 7.21, p = 0.01; interaction: F1,19 = 7.62, p = 0.01) was impaired in the NVHL rats that were only exposed to the rotating arena during adolescence (Tukey HSD post-hoc p’s<0.05). Inset: total number of entrances. 24-h retention of the place avoidance on trial 17 relative to performance on trial 16 was not worse in the exposed NVHL rats (t8 = 1.97; p = 0.08). *p < 0.05