PLAY-BEHAVIOR AND STRESS RESPONSIVITY IN PERIADOLESCENT OFFSPRING EXPOSED PRENATALLY TO COCAINE

Play behavior and stress responsiveness were examined in offspring exp osed gestationally to cocaine. The subjects were offspring of Sprague- Dawley rat dams given SC injections of 40 mg/kg/3 cc cocaine HCl daily from gestational days 8-20 (C40), pair-fed darns injected daily with saline (PF), and untreated control dams (LC). Periadolescent (postnata l day (P) 30-36) male and female rats were assigned to either pretest Stress or No Stress conditions. Every other day Stress animals were ex posed to a stressor (on P30 - foot shock; P32 - white noise; P34 - for ced swim; P36 - foot shock), with each stressor being administered 4 h prior to a play session. Immobility during one of the stressors, foot shock, was used to assess stress responsiveness. Play sessions consis ted of pairing each experimental animal with a same-sex, nonexperiment ally manipulated conspecific for 7 min. The results indicated that per iadolescent offspring exposed gestationally to cocaine differed from c ontrols in their stress responsivity, as evidenced by a failure to sho w increased immobility during the final foot shock session. Also, whil e cocaine-exposed juveniles did not differ from controls in their own play behavior, these offspring elicited less play solicitation from co nspecifics, as evidenced by an increased latency to be pounced, and de creased frequency and duration of being pounced. These findings parall el earlier evidence for altered stress responsiveness in adult cocaine -exposed rats and also suggest that prenatal exposure to cocaine resul ts in altered social cues.