THE EFFECT OF CHRONIC COCAINE EXPOSURE DURING PREGNANCY ON THE ACQUISITION OF OPERANT BEHAVIORS BY RHESUS-MONKEY OFFSPRING

To explore possible long-term effects of gestational cocaine exposure in a nonhuman primate model, pregnant rhesus monkeys were treated from about 1 month of gestation until term with either 0 (N = 3), 0.3 (N = 3), 1.0 (N = 3), or escalating doses up to 8.5 (N = 3) mg/kg (IM), th ree times per day, 5 consecutive days per week. Despite these differen ces in cocaine exposure, the experimental groups did not differ signif icantly with respect to the postnatal growth of offspring over an 18-m onth period following birth. Beginning at 6 months of age, the behavio r of offspring was monitored using an operant test battery that includ ed five food reinforced tasks designed to model aspects of learning, c olor and position discrimination, rime estimation, short-term memory a nd attention, and motivation. Although the acquisition of each operant behavior by offspring progressed significantly during training betwee n 6 and 18 months of age, this acquisition was not differentially affe cted by gestational cocaine exposure. It was concluded that, in a rhes us monkey model, chronic cocaine exposure during pregnancy had no sign ificant effect on the offsprings' acquisition of operant behaviors.