REACTIVITY TO NOVELTY DURING YOUTH AS A PREDICTIVE FACTOR OF COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT IN THE ELDERLY - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY IN RATS

A life-span study of certain behavioral traits was conducted in rats. Animals were repeatedly tested in a circular corridor for reactivity t o novelty and in a recognition memory task for cognitive abilities. Th ese measures revealed important inter-individual differences in young as well as in old subjects. Some of these differences appear with agin g (memory deficits) and others disappear (high reactivity to novelty). Moreover, a relationship between high reactivity to novelty in youth and deficits in memory recognition in elderly was found. Rats that are high-responders to novelty had age-related memory impairments whereas the low-responder rats did not. While the biological mechanism linkin g these two behavioral traits remains to be demonstrated, this study s hows that age-related impairments can be predicted by factors detectab le early in life.