Peculiarities of behavior of offspring of rats-ambidexters surviving vital stress

Abstract

Psychogenic trauma inflicted to mothers (Wistar rats) during pregnancy is more tragic for establishment of psychoemotional functions in offspring than in the rat pups whose mothers survived prior to pregnancy the stress connected with threat of life. The "antenatal stress" causes in the one-month-old offspring the depression-like behavior, while the stress one month prior to conception--the increased anxiety. Disturbances of the integral behavior in the test "open field" can be caused both by the acute psychogenic trauma of mothers and by its delayed consequences. The sharp impoverishment of behavior and the more pronounced psychoemotional disturbances are realized in female individuals regardless of the terms of the action. In the male offspring the vital stress during their mothers' pregnancy produces the rougher behavioral disturbances than stress prior to conception.