The effects of moderate prenatal alcohol exposure on performance in hippocampal-sensitive spatial memory and anxiety tasks by adult male and female rat offspring
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Moderate prenatal alcohol exposure (mPAE) results in structural alterations to the hippocampus. Previous studies have reported impairments in hippocampal-sensitive tasks, but have not compared performance between male and female animals. In the present study, performance in hippocampal-sensitive spatial memory and anxiety behavior tests were compared across adult male and female saccharin (SACC) control mPAE Long-Evans rat offspring. Two tests of spatial memory were conducted that were aimed at assessing memory for recently acquired spatial information: A delayed spatial alternation task using an M-shaped maze and a delayed match-to-place task in the Morris water task. In both tasks, rats in SACC and mPAE groups showed similar learning and retention of a spatial location even after a 2-h interval between encoding and retention. A separate group of adult male and female SACC and mPAE rat offspring were tested for anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus-maze paradigm. In this test, both male and female mPAE rats exhibited a significantly greater amount of time and a greater number of head dips in the open arms, while locomotion and open arm entries did not differ between groups. The results suggest that mPAE produces a reduction in anxiety-like behaviors in both male and female rats in the elevated plus-maze.
期刊介绍:
Alcohol is an international, peer-reviewed journal that is devoted to publishing multi-disciplinary biomedical research on all aspects of the actions or effects of alcohol on the nervous system or on other organ systems. Emphasis is given to studies into the causes and consequences of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, and biomedical aspects of diagnosis, etiology, treatment or prevention of alcohol-related health effects.
Intended for both research scientists and practicing clinicians, the journal publishes original research on the neurobiological, neurobehavioral, and pathophysiological processes associated with alcohol drinking, alcohol abuse, alcohol-seeking behavior, tolerance, dependence, withdrawal, protracted abstinence, and relapse. In addition, the journal reports studies on the effects alcohol on brain mechanisms of neuroplasticity over the life span, biological factors associated with adolescent alcohol abuse, pharmacotherapeutic strategies in the treatment of alcoholism, biological and biochemical markers of alcohol abuse and alcoholism, pathological effects of uncontrolled drinking, biomedical and molecular factors in the effects on liver, immune system, and other organ systems, and biomedical aspects of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder including mechanisms of damage, diagnosis and early detection, treatment, and prevention. Articles are published from all levels of biomedical inquiry, including the following: molecular and cellular studies of alcohol''s actions in vitro and in vivo; animal model studies of genetic, pharmacological, behavioral, developmental or pathophysiological aspects of alcohol; human studies of genetic, behavioral, cognitive, neuroimaging, or pathological aspects of alcohol drinking; clinical studies of diagnosis (including dual diagnosis), treatment, prevention, and epidemiology. The journal will publish 9 issues per year; the accepted abbreviation for Alcohol for bibliographic citation is Alcohol.