Abstract
Female rats with 30 to 70% of conditioned responses in an avoidance conditioning session in a Warner cage, were treated daily during pregnancy with 0.5 mg/kg of d,l-amphetamine administered subcutaneously. They had been mated with males selected with the same criterion who received no treatment.
The control group differed from the treated one in that females received the same volume of saline solution instead of the drug.
Teratogenic effects of the drug were not observed and there were no differences in either the age of eyes or vaginal aperture or in growth rate determined by the weekly weight between offspring of treated and control mothers.
The pups of amphetamine treated mothers had better acquisition and retention of conditioned avoidance responses than those of control mothers when they were 90 days old but no difference was observed at the age of 45 days.
On the other hand, offspring of the treated group had a lower hippocampal seizure threshold than the control group.
The relation between the mechanisms of learning and seizure are discussed in connection with potassium release by stimulation in the hippocampus.
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Established Investigator of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina.
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Nasello, A.G., Astrada, C.A. & Ramirez, O.A. Effects on the acquisition of conditioned avoidance responses and seizure threshold in the offspring of amphetamine treated gravid rats. Psychopharmacologia 40, 25–31 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429445
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00429445