Resumo

RUETTI, Eliana et al. Neonatal stress and frustration. rev.latinoam.psicol. [online]. 2010, vol.42, n.2, pp.279-288. ISSN 0120-0534.

Emotional neonatal stress alters the emotional response in adult rats. In one of its forms, the chronic random neonatal stress, produces behavioral, neurophysiological and hormonal reductions, in response to aversive stimuli. Devaluation or omission of expected reinforcers for acquired skills provokes responses similar to pain, fear and anxiety and this reaction is known as frustration. In this paper we will present, two different experiments in which, both, rats that were subjected to random neonatal stress and the no-treatment condition, were exposed to two procedures of experimental frustration: the consummatory negative successive contrast (CSNc, experiment 1) and the consummatory extinction (EC, experiment 2). In the CSNc, the response time to drinking a glucose solution of 32% to 4%, compares to the performance of animals that always received a 4% solution. In the EC, the animals received the 4% solution during acquisition and were presented with the empty water source. The obtained results show that in CSNc, the animals exposed to neonatal stress presented an adecuate response to frustration and in the EC, an accelerated extinction, in relation to controls without neonatal treatment. These findings extend the effects of neonatal stress to provoked responses to situations of loss or decrease of incentives.

Palavras-chave : frustration; neonatal chronic stress; Consummatory Successive Negative contrast; consummatory Extinction; rats.

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