Lateralized spontaneous exploratory behavior in maturing rats induced by new geometrically differentiated enviroments after administration whit trace elements

Abstract

Functional laterality is known as an intrinsic property of the brain. Sinceseveral studies have shown the presence of laterality in many species otherthan humans, it has been suggested that this is an adaptive mechanism toaid survival. Previous studies have shown that lateralized behavior observedduring exposure to different environmental stimuli is not constant innormal animals, depending on the geometrical form of the exploratoryfield. In these exploratory fields, animals showed right- or left-biasedexploratory behavior, according to the nature of the geometrical propertiesof the environment. Previously, it was found that tellurium (Te) was ableto block spontaneous left-biased exploration in one defined geometricalenvironment. In the present work, the influence of Te and selenium (Se)in animals exposed to novel geometrically different environments werestudied. Three geometrically different testing fields (square, rectangle, andT-shaped) were presented to Se- and Te-treated groups of rats. The resultsshow that in the square field, only the Se treatment was able to blockspontaneous right-biased exploratory responses; in the rectangular field,both Se and Te treatments blocked right-biased exploratory responses, andin the T-shaped field, only Te was able to block spontaneous left-biasedexploratory responses. Data suggest that trace elements modify lateralizedbehavioral responses independently of the form of the novel exploratoryfield, suggesting the presence of a specific action in the brain.