REMEMBERING THE FUTURE: MOTHERS

KNOWS BEST

Adam Franssen, Kelly Rafferty, Sarah Byce,

and Craig Kinsley

In the Beginning…

Effects of Parenthood on Parents

???

Effects of Pregnancy: Boldness

Effects of Pregnancy: Better Foraging

Effects of Pregnancy: Better Non-Spatial Memory

Effects of Pregnancy: Better Spatial Memory

Habituation: Days 1-4 Tests: days 5-8Measures: Latency to approach baited and non-baited wells, number of baited and non-baited wells visited, latency to eat first/only Froot Loop, total time to find and eat all FLs, number of FLs found and eaten

Effects of Pregnancy: Mothers are less likely to suffer from

Alzheimers

Virgins Mothers

Effects of Pregnancy: Mothers suffering TBI outperform Control Virgins at memory tasks

Virgin KA

Mother KA

And then there was prospective memory… (and it was good)

What IS Prospective Memory?

Types of MemoryWorking Memory – actively

trying to remember something

Retrospective – recalling event from the past

Prospective – the anticipation of future events

Who utilizes PM?

?

What do RATS have to remember?

Retrospective:Where are the best places to

find food?How do I get back to my nest?

Prospective:Remember to maximize my

foraging so that I have enough food to survive drought conditions

Mothers vs. Non-Mothers

Given: Reproductive experience modifies a host of behavioral, neurobiological and physiological features.We hypothesize that it is evolutionarily

advantageous for mothers to remember to forage more efficiently in order to better care for their young

Experimental Design

1. Mother, Virgin, and Male rats are deprived of water for 16 hours

2. They are then placed in an Open Field Maze (OFM) for 30 minutes and allowed to forage for water

Rat in the Open Field Maze

Experimental Design

1. Next, rats are placed back into their home cage where:

Control rats have waterExperimental rats do NOT have water

2. After returning to the home cage, rats are placed back into the open field maze.

3. If the rats are using prospective memory, experimental rats should spend more time drinking in the maze than the control rats.

Mother in OFM Control

Mother in OFMExperimental

Data Suggest That Mother Rats (Primiparous Females)

Are Utilizing Prospective Memory

Time Spent Drinking Latency To Find Water

Mothers spend more time drinking than other groups

p = 0.03; n = 6; Mean + SEM

No significance w/in groups

n = 6; Mean + SEM

Con

trol

Pro

spec

tive

Con

trol

Pro

spec

tive

Con

trol

Pro

spec

tive

Male Nulliparous Primiparous

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Tim

e S

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g (

sec)

Con

trol

Pro

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tive

Con

trol

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spec

tive

Con

trol

Pro

spec

tive

Male Nulliparous Primiparous

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Lat

ency

to

Fin

d W

ater

(se

c)

Preliminary Conclusions I Male and Virgin rats

did NOT demonstrate prospective memory

Regardless of condition, males and virgins spent the same time drinking while in the OFM Control Prospective

0

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160

MaleNulliparousPrimiparous

ConditionTi

me

Spen

t Dri

nkin

g (s

ec)

Preliminary Conclusions II

Mother rats demonstrated prospective memory Experimental moms drank

more water in the OFM – indicating that they knew that there would not be water in the home cage

Control moms drank less – indicating that they knew water was going to be available in their home cage.

Control Prospective0

20

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160

MaleNulliparousPrimiparous

Condition

Tim

e Sp

ent D

rink

ing

(sec

)

Why the difference between groups?

Current/Future Directions Investigate the brain!

Where is the brain activated during prospective memory?

cfos activation no cfos activation

Current/Future Directions What about dads?

Current/Future Directions:Peromyscus californicus

Franssen et al. 2010 J Neurosci (in prep)

Monogamous/Biparental

Dad caring for young

Acknowledgements

Catherine and Elle Kinsley Lab