Age and Sex Characteristics of the Behavior of Prenatally Stressed Rats in a Black-and-White Modification of the Behavioral Model “Suok-Test”

Abstract

Research activity, anxiety and motor disintegration were studied in prenatally stressed immature and adult male and female rats in the Suok-test model. The mothers of these animals from the 16th to the 19th days of pregnancy were placed for 3 hours in plastic pencil cases that fix the animals. The offspring were tested on day 20 and month 4 of postnatal ontogenesis. Mature females were tested taking into account the estrous cycle. A decrease in anxiety and an increase in research activity was observed in all experimental groups, with the exception of mature females at the diestrus stage. At this stage of the estrous cycle, behavioral patterns were identified in females that characterize anxiety and a decrease in the research component of behavior. Sensorimotor disintegration characteristic of immature animals was compensated with age, but not in females at the diestrus stage. Thus, according to the results of the study, it can be concluded that prenatal stress can carry both adaptive functions, causing the growth of the research component of behavior, and maladaptive ones. The anxiolytic effects of prenatal stress are rather negative, reducing evolutionarily significant protective mechanisms.