ACUTE STRESS IN PREGNANT RATS - EFFECTS ON GROWTH-RATE, LEARNING, ANDMEMORY CAPABILITIES OF THE OFFSPRING

Growth rate of the offspring of female rats stressed by the presence o f a cat at the 10(th) or the 19(th) gestational day was lower than tha t of controls whereas footshocks administered at the same periods did not significantly influence growth rate of the young, Whatever the nat ure of the stress and the time when it was administered to the mother, the death rate of the young rats was much greater than that in contro ls. When adult, the offspring of stressed mothers exhibited learning a nd memory impairments in a delayed alternation task as well as in pass ive avoidance conditioning. Alteration of these cognitive functions is interpreted in terms of subtle dysfunctions in the development of the nervous system through modifications of the hormonal components of th e mothers, particularly eventual alterations of the nervous system bio chemistry of the offspring. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.