The role of social isolation in critical periods of early postnatal ontogenesis in the formation of epileptic activity of the brain and learning ability in adulthood

The effect of complete social isolation in the critical periods of early postnatal ontogenesis on the learning and epileptic activity in Wag/Rij rats with a genetic predisposition to the absence epilepsy was studied. The different learning tasks with positive reinforcement (the Intellicage test) and punishment (the two-way active avoidance in the “shuttle box”) were used. It was found that a 3-hour daily social isolation of rat pups from the mother and siblings in early postnatal ontogenesis changes the learning ability and its connection with epileptic activity in adulthood depending on the period of isolation. The isolation from 2th to 8th postnatal day led to a decrease of epileptic activity and improved the learning with positive reinforcement in adult rats. The isolation from 9th to 15th postnatal day improved the learning a conditioned avoidance response with punishment and induced the interrelations between epileptic activity and the active avoidance learning. The isolation from 16th to 22th postnatal – 14 – Global science. Development and novelty day led to an improvement of positive reward-related learning and formation of the significant interactions between epileptic activity and the learning with positive and negative reinforcement.