AN ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL NAVIGATION IN PRENATALLY PROTEIN MALNOURISHED RATS

Developing rats were either malnourished or adequately nourished durin g the prenatal period by feeding their dams diets of low (6% casein) o r adequate (25% casein) protein content 5 weeks prior to mating and th roughout pregnancy. All pups received adequate nutrition from the day of birth onwards. Male offspring were tested in one of two spatial nav igation tests in the Morris water tank. In proximal-cue tests (postnat al days 16-20), the position of a platform, which provided a means to escape from swimming, was denoted by an obvious visual cue located dir ectly on the platform. In distal-cue tests (postnatal days 20-27 and a dult ages, days 70-71 and days 220-221), the escape platform was subme rged below the surface of the water so that the rats were required to use extramaze visual cues to guide them to the platform. Neither proxi mal-cue nor distal-cue navigation was significantly impaired in the pr enatally malnourished rats relative to controls, at any of the tested.