The effects of prenatal stress on learning in rats in a Morris maze.
The offspring of female Wistar rats subjected to daily stress (they were placed in an unfamiliar social group for 1 h) during the last third of pregnancy were studied. The offspring of these females were tested for the ability to perform spatial orientation in a Morris water maze at the ages of two and four months. Prenatal stress had no effect on the ability of rats to learn in the Morris maze. However, two-month-old animals subjected to prenatal stress, unlike controls, demonstrated less flexibility in their behavioral strategy in solving the spatial orientation task. These animals were characterized by a clear tendency for their behavior to perseverate. By the age of four months, the differences between the control and prenatally stressed animals had disappeared.
Department of Higher Nervous Activity and Psychophysiology, St. Petersburg State University, Russia.
A A
AA
Aleksandrov
O N
ON
Polyakova
A S
AS
Batuev
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*