Abstract
Thyroxine injections of neonatal mice at 1,2, and 3 days of age yielded higher activity levels during the second and third postnatal weeks compared to saline controls, but did not result in an earlier ontogenetic activity peak, which would have been indicative of accelerated development of inhibitory functioning. However, in the second experiment, hyperthyroid mice demonstrated a significant increase in activity following scopolamine injection as early as 15 days of age, whereas controls showed a similar increase at 17 days of age. This finding suggests that neonatal hyperthyroidism results in earlier development of the cholinergic system.
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This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-Q9145-01) to the second author.
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Murphy, J.M., Nagy, Z.M. Neonatal hyperthyroidism alters the development of behavioral arousal and inhibition in the mouse. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 8, 121–123 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335100
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335100