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Prenatal stress potentiates stress-induced behavior and reduces the propensity to play in juvenile rats
L K Takahashi1, C Haglin, N H Kalin
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison 53792.
Insights
Prenatal stress in rats increases defensive behaviors and delays social play. Stress exposure potentiates defensive responses, impacting appetitive activities in juvenile rats.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Prenatal stress is a known modulator of neurodevelopment and behavior.
- Stress during gestation can influence offspring's stress reactivity and social behaviors.
- Understanding these effects is crucial for developmental and behavioral research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of prenatal stress on juvenile rats' defensive and appetitive behaviors.
- To determine if prenatal stress potentiates defensive responses and interferes with social play.
- To assess the long-term effects of acute stress exposure on behavior.
Main Methods:
- Sibling pairs of prenatally stressed and control juvenile rats were used.
- Social play (latency and frequency) was measured over four days.
- Electric foot shock was administered on Day 27 to assess defensive behavior (freezing).
- Retesting occurred on Day 28 to evaluate long-term effects.
Main Results:
- Prenatally stressed rats showed significantly longer latencies to initiate social play.
- Exposure to foot shock increased play latency in both groups.
- Prenatally stressed rats exhibited significantly longer durations of defensive freezing post-shock.
- Freezing durations normalized by Day 28, with no group differences.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal stress delays adaptation to novel environments and initiation of social play in juvenile rats.
- Prenatal stress potentiates defensive responses to acute threat.
- These findings support the hypothesis that prenatal stress modulates stress responsiveness and social behavior inclination.
Abstract:
We examined the hypothesis that prenatal stress potentiates defensive responsiveness which may interfere with the expression of appetitive behavioral activities. Sibling pairs of prenatally stressed and control juvenile rats were placed in an unfamiliar environment. The latency and frequency of social play, a sought-after activity of juvenile rats, were measured on 4 successive days beginning at 25 days of age. However, on Day 27, electric foot shock was administered in order to assess directly whether exposure to threat facilitates the occurrence of defensive behavior in prenatally stressed rats. In addition, to determine whether previous exposure to threat produces long-term suppressive effects on play, rats were retested on Day 28 in the absence of shock. Throughout the testing period, the latency to play, as indicated by one rat pouncing on the opponent, was significantly higher in prenatally stressed than control rats. The frequency of play, however, did not differ reliably between groups. These data suggest that prenatally stressed rats take longer to adapt to the test situation before initiating play than control rats. In both groups, exposure to shock on Day 27 significantly increased the latency to play. More importantly, prenatally stressed rats exhibited significantly higher durations of defensive freezing than control animals. When retested on Day 28, however, the duration of freezing declined significantly and no longer differed between groups. Data appear to support the hypothesis that prenatally stressed juvenile rats are responsive to stress which may modulate the inclination to exhibit social behavior.