Abstract:

Learning is a complex function and it is influenced from by the changes in physiological conditions. So, it is thought that the stress which damages inside and outside environment of the organism while causes biochemical and functional changes in the neuro-endocrine system affects learning and causes many complications in the organism. In this study, effects of 21-day social isolation stress on learning in male juvenile rats were investigated. The study was done with 25 Wistar Albino male juvenile rats which were 28 days old. Five of them were at preexperiment group, 10 were at control group and 10 were at social isolation group. The rats underwent social isolation stress 4 hours daily for 21 days. At the end of this period,the rats learning to locate places was tested at Morris Water Maze. After a three day learning period, learning test was done at day four. The total duration of time spent to find the platform and the duration of time spent in half area of the tank including the platform in a value representing the percentage in the total time were compared statistically within and between the rats included in the control and social isolation experiment groups so as to assess the effect of social isolation stress on the ability of learning position in rats. The comparasion on the learning phase for learning performances displayed on each day within groups was statistically analysed by means of repeated measurament with the ANOVA test and Benferroni Test whereas the test phase was compaired between groups with the Unpaired-t Test. p<0,05 was accepted for significant level.As a result, it was found that social isolation stress, at applied for 21 days, is not affect on learning in male juvenile rats and it was concluded that the effect of stress on learning is related to period and degree of the stress

Keywords: