The differences in interactions of preweanlings versus adults with specific stimuli suggests that CNS systems underlying these behavior patterns are at different stages of immaturity at PND 18 such that there may be an array of developmental trajectories for various categories of specific stimuli. The impact of novelty was stimulus dependent. The specific stimulus interactions of preweanlings were less impacted than those of adults by the time of day of testing and placement of a stimulus in an anxiety-provoking location. Preweanling response to some stimuli, for example to live pups, was qualitatively different from that of adults the preweanling behavioral repertoire was characterized by pup-seeking while the adult response was characterized by pup-avoidance. In contrast, preweanlings were adult-like in their interaction with food and prey. Preweanlings were faster to initiate specific stimulus exploration and were more interactive with most specific stimuli than adults the magnitude of these preweanling-adult quantitative differences ranged from fairly small to very large depending upon the stimulus. We examined the behavioral responses of normal late preweanling (PND 18-19) and adult rats when presented with exemplars of categorically-varied stimuli, including inanimate objects systematically varied in size and interactive properties, biological stimuli, and food. No reports, however, of specific-stimulus exploration in the late preweanling rat are found in the literature. The late preweanling rat has potential as a preclinical model for disorders initially manifested in early childhood that are characterized by dysfunctional interactions with specific stimuli (e.g., obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism).
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