Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to O N Poliakova.
Prenatal stress was found not to affect learning capability in Morris Water Maze in rats, although some difference was revealed in the rats behaviour. 2-month old rats who had been subjected to a prenatal stress, revealed an obvious trend towards less flexible strategy of behaviour and perseveration. At the age of 4 months, the difference between the control and experimental groups becomes negligible.
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Anxiety and locomotion were studied in offsprings of female rats subjected to everyday stress (one a day being displaced into another cage with pregnant rats) during the 3d stage of pregnancy. At the age of 1 month, the prenatally stressed rats had higher anxiety and lower locomotion in comparison with control animals. At the age of 3 month, the prenatally stressed females did not significantly differ from the control in the level of anxiety and locomotion, while the males demonstrated lower ambulation than the control animals.
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The anxiety level was studied in offsprings of dams stressed during pregnancy. Increased number of resorptions and stillbirths was mentioned. The experimental pups (1 month old) had lower locomotion and higher anxiety levels as compared to the control animals. There were no differences in anxiety and locomotion levels in males (4 months old) between the experimental and control groups. In experimental females of this age anxiety was decreased and locomotion increased. Aggressive behavior was more expressed in the experimental animals of both sexes.
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.