Abstract
Long-Evans rats intubated daily from 3 to 21 days of age with 0, 10, 30, or 90 mg/kg of lead acetate in aqueous solution were tested postweaning on eight behavioral measures. The three levels of lead exposure had no effect on growth and all animals were overtly free of signs of poisoning. However, neonatal lead exposure produced subtle behavioral effects including increased motor activity (jiggle cages) and impairment of motor coordination (rotarod test), response inhibition ability (operant delayed response), and reversal learning of a tactually cued conditional discrimination. The lead treatment had no effect on simple learning (turning response in E-maze), complex visually cued learning (conditional discrimination in E-maze), and visual acuity (optokinetic test). Acquisition and extinction of passive shock avoidance were not affected by lead exposure, but both acquisition and extinction of active avoidance were affected. Lead treatment also decreased hematocrit, increased blood lead concentration, and increased adrenal and kidney wet weights.
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