ISSN:
1432-2072
Keywords:
Fetus
;
Prenatal drug exposure
;
Schizophreniad-Amphetamine
;
Rat
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract Recent evidence suggests that mid-pregnancy is a critical period for production of fetal abnormalities that cause behavioral and neuropathological changes in adult offspring. The present experiments provide an animal model of these effects by treating pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats during gestational days 11–14 withd-amphetamine (AM). Offspring were tested for neurological signs, foraging activity, reversal learning, and sensitivity to amphetamine challenge. In the Early Juvenile period, postnatal days (PND) 20–30, female AM offspring initially showed reductions in rearing, holepoking, and midfield activity. On later trials, and as young adults, AM females showed signs of locomotor hyperactivity despite continued poor foraging efficiency, and were also more sensitive to a 1.0 mg/kgd-amphetamine challenge. AM males showed initially slower and more perseverative responding than controls, but then developed excessive response switching. These changes continued during tests for Retention, Reversal, and Extinction in the Late Juvenile/Early Adult stage (PND 50–90), when both AM-exposed sexes showed increased eating time, significantly more perseverative lateral turning preference (right or left), and slower reversal learning than controls. Behavioral data were consistent with aberrations in thalamo-frontal and mesolimbic/nigrostriatal projection systems that have been reported in AM animals and which are also affected by maternal drug abuse and schizophrenia.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02245066
