title: [The effect of prenatal "pain" and "emotional" stresses on the learning characteristics of rats].
abstract: Behaviour was studied of the offsprings of female rats which were exposed to pain (P) and emotional (PSY) stress during the last 9 days of pregnancy. The P group received 5 electrical foot shocks (shuffle threshold, 50 Hz, 3 sec). PSY rats were placed in the compartment adjacent with the grid-floor box, thus they could watch, hear and smell the mate exposed to P. Pups of the intact rats served as a control (C). At 7-8 weeks of age the offsprings were tested in a modified Morris maze. Performance was significantly better in the P group than in the PSY and C groups. Acquisition of avoidance in a one-way shuttle-box at 10-12 weeks was higher in the P group than in the PSY and C animals. Two weeks later, the C rats were more successful in acquisition in a two-way shuttle-box than the PSY and P rats. At the age of 4-5 months a trend was revealed to higher capacity for learning in female P and C offsprings than in males while in the PSY group capacity for learning was sex-independent. The findings suggest that the pain and emotional stress during pregnancy exert different effects on behaviour of the offsprings.
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Vinogradova
authors.forename: O N
authors.initials: ON
authors.lastname: Poliakova
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Batuev
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004924:Escape Reaction / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013550:Swimming
vernacular_title: Vliianie prenatal'nogo "bolevogo" i "émotsional'nogo" stressov na kharakteristiki obucheniia krys.