Early amygdala damage in the rat as a model for neurodevelopmental psychopathological disorders

Neurodevelopmental disorders in medial temporal lobe structures may underli e psychopathological diseases such as schizophrenia and autism. To construc t an animal model for these developmental disorders, social and non-social behavioural responses were assessed in rats with ibotenic acid lesions of t he (baso-)lateral and central amygdala or ventral hippocampus, induced earl y in life. Lesioning the amygdala on day 7 after birth resulted in a variet y of behavioural disturbances later in life, whereas after similar lesions on day 21 after birth no disturbances developed, except for deficits in soc ial behaviours. Lesioning the hippocampus led to much less disturbances. Th e results show that amygdala and hippocampus damage at a specific point ear ly in life results in enduring behavioural disturbances that become more ma nifest after puberty. In particular, lesions of the amygdala on day 7 of li fe may serve as a rat model with face and construct validity for neurodevel opmental disorders in studying psychopathology. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.