Biomedical subjects

N S Vigliecca

Publications and source records attributed to N S Vigliecca.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1986

Acute prenatal alcohol exposure in rats: a behavioral study.

Pregnant rats were exposed to ethanol (two doses of 6.4 g/kg spaced by an interval of 6 hours, administered through an intragastric cannula) on the 8th day of gestation; control rats received two identical administrations of isocaloric sucrose. No significant differences were found in body weight and litter size of experimental and control pups 24 hours after delivery. When offsprings of ethanol treated mothers were tested in different postnatal behavioral tasks, significant developmental delays (suckling behavior and surface righting) were revealed during the lactation period, and an impaired passive avoidance performance was found at 40 days old compared to control offsprings.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Acute ethanol exposure during pregnancy in rats: effects upon a multiple learning task.

Pregnant rats received 4.8 g/kg of 20% (v/v) ethanol IP or identical volume of saline during gestational Day 8. No signs of gross physical teratogenesis were evident in the offspring as expressed by litter size, weight and external malformations at birth. However, when offspring were subjected to a multiple fixed ratio-4/differential reinforcement of low rate of responding 10-sec ( FR 4/DRL 10 sec) schedule of reinforcement at 60 days of age, significant differences were observed in the performance of DRL 10-sec schedule that required visual discrimination and response inhibition, but not in the FR 4 schedule that required a relatively simple nondiscrimination task of active-response. Bar press rates were unaffected by prenatal treatment since no differences between groups were found in the number of total responses performed on either component of the multiple schedule. Present results are discussed in terms of either response perseveration or a lower aptitude to deal with low rates of responding-discrimination learning tasks on the animals prenatally exposed to alcohol.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Acute ethanol intoxication during pregnancy: postnatal effects on the behavioral response to serotonin agents.

Pregnant wistar rats were treated on the eighth day of gestation (GD 8) with two IP injections, spaced by 4 h, of either ethanol (2.9 g/kg in 24% v/v saline solution, EG) or saline (SG). Other pregnant females did not received any type of IP injections (absolute control group, ACG). Offspring were tested at 45 or 90 days of age. At 45 days of age, EG showed an increased behavioral response (forepaw treading and hindlimb abduction) to the 5-HT1 agonist, 5-methoxy-N,N-dymethyltryptamine. In addition, an enhanced "wet-dog" shakes behavioral response to 5-HT2 agonist, 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan, was also observed in EG as compared to ACG and SG. On the contrary, at 90 days, EG exhibited a diminished behavioral reactivity to 5-HT1 and 5-HT2 agonists as compared to SG. These results demonstrated that acute administration of ethanol on GD 8 induced long-lasting changes in the functioning of central serotonergic systems.

5-Hydroxytryptophan↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Dichhaptic task: methodological factors and brain organization.

Significant effects of shape, sequence of shapes, distractors, order of report and practise were demonstrated in a free recall dichhaptic task with nonsense shapes in adults. A left hand superiority (in accordance with theoretical expectations) was observed only in the second reports of the first half of the test. No sex differences were found. There was a preference to report first the right hand, and the opposite preference was observed in a dichhaptic letter task. It is probable that all these methodological factors may have affected previous dichhaptic studies. The association with other lateral and cognitive parameters is also analysed.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Neuropsychological tests abbreviated and adapted to Spanish speakers: review of previous findings and validity studies for the discrimination of patients with anterior vs. posterior lesions].

INTRODUCTION: There is a lack of neuropsychological tests for Spanish-speakers validated by the cerebral location of the injury. Then the antecedents of the present instrument are described. AIMS: To study the validity of the battery for the differentiation of healthy subjects versus patients and, in patients, anterior versus posterior telencephalic lesions. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 37 patients with frontal lesions, 37 with posterior lesions and 148 healthy subjects were studied. The three groups were matched by sex, age, years of study, manual preference, laterality of the injury, type of lesion and time since onset of condition. RESULTS: The discriminant analysis reached a percentage of correctly predicted cases of 86% for posterior lesions, 85% for anterior lesions, and 99% for healthy subjects. The analysis of the items of the initial interview, only with the group of patients, resulted in a correct prediction of the observations of 90% or over for both lesions. In general, tests which best discriminated anterior from posterior lesions were the ones that worst discriminated anterior lesion from healthy subjects with exception of an easy paired-associated word learning test which turned out to be valid for the discrimination of the three groups. CONCLUSION: Present results demonstrated that this battery of abbreviated tests adapted to Spanish speakers was valid for the discrimination of the three studied groups. Methodological approaches based on objective evaluations and multiple comparisons rather than on clinical appreciation are proposed.

Adult↗