Increased vertical dimension of occlusion for varying periods differentially impairs learning and memory in guinea pigs

Abstract

There is an increasing number of studies showing that occlusal dysfunction impairs learning and memory. We previously demonstrated that the brain has a mechanism to calibrate between the activities of spindle afferents and periodontal-mechanoreceptor afferents for controlling the chewing movement, and the accurate calibration can be done only at the proper vertical dimension of occlusion (VDO). Then, the chewing at an inappropriate VDO may induce a severe mental stress due to a mal-calibration. However, it is not clear how the impairment of learning/memory progresses over the period of stress induced by occlusal dysfunction. We investigated by passive avoidance test how the behavior and learning/memory are altered in guinea pigs in which the VDO was raised by 2-3 mm over the period up to 8 weeks. We found that the guinea pigs reared under the raised occlusal-condition (ROC) for 1 week showed a very high sensitivity to electrical stimulation whereas this did not cause the memory consolidation in the 1st-day retention trial, suggesting that such hypersensitivity rather hampered the fear learning. In the guinea pigs reared under the ROC for 2 and 8 weeks, the learning ability was not largely affected and memory consolidation occurred similarly whereas the memory retention deteriorated more severely in the latter guinea pigs than in the former ones. In the guinea pigs reared under the ROC for 3 and 4 weeks, learning was severely impaired, and memory consolidation did not occur. These results suggest that the occlusal dysfunction for varying periods differentially impairs learning and memory.

Keywords: Guinea pigs; Learning and memory; Occlusal-bite raising; Passive avoidance test; Stress; Vertical dimension of occlusion.