We report here studies of exploratory activity, anxiety, and motor disintegration in prenatally stressed immature and adult male and female rats using the Suok test method. Female rats at pregnancy days 16–19 were placed for 3 h in plastic pencil cases to impose restraint on the animals. Offspring were tested at 20 and 120 days of postnatal ontogenesis. Testing of adult females took account of the estrous cycle. Anxiety decreased and exploratory activity increased in all experimental groups, with the exception of adult females in diestrus. At this stage of the estrous cycle, females showed behavioral patterns characterized by anxiety and decreased exploratory behavior. Sensorimotor disintegration, characteristic of immature animals of the experimental groups, settled with age, but not in females in diestrus. Thus, the results obtained here lead to the conclusion that prenatal stress can have both adaptive functions, increasing exploratory behavior, and maladaptive functions. Prenatal stress-induced anxiolytic effects could be negative, impairing evolutionarily significant protective mechanisms, or beneficial, depending on environmental conditions.
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Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei Nervnoi Deyatel’nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 73, No. 4, pp. 550–562, July–August, 2023.
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Kuleshova, O.N. Age- and Sex-Related Features of the Behavior of Prenatally Stressed Rats Using a Dark/Light Modification of the Behavioral “Suok” Test. Neurosci Behav Physi 53, 1602–1610 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01555-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-023-01555-w