INUTERO ALCOHOL EXPOSURE - FUNCTIONAL AND STRUCTURAL BRAIN-DAMAGE

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 5  (3) , 363-366
Abstract
Pregnant rats were intubated with alcohol throughout gestation. Control animals received vehicle and were pair-fed. At birth, all offspring were surrogate-fostered to nontreated dams. At 11 wk of age, alcohol-exposed animals did not perform as well in a 2-way shock avoidance task. The brains of these animals also exhibited significant deficits in dendritic structure in the area of the hippocampus. These behavioral observations may be a counterpart to the learning deficits associated with fetal alcohol effects, e.g., fetal alcohol syndrome in humans and animals, and the neuroanatomical observations suggest a structural basis for these learning deficits.

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