Psychology ETDs

Publication Date

Spring 2-27-2024

Abstract

Prenatal alcohol exposure has been found to alter brain regions involved in spatial memory. Previous studies have shown that moderate PAE (mPAE; ~30-120 mg/dL) impairs spatial memory in male rats and damages the limbic-thalamus and hippocampus. Recent work has shown that visual discrimination memory is impaired after mPAE in a sex-specific manner such that female mice exhibit greater deficits after 15sec delay. It is unclear whether similar-sex-specific deficits would be observed in a spatial memory task or in a rat model of mPAE. Thus, the present study tests the hypothesis that mPAE would produce sex-specific deficits in a delayed non-match-to-place variant of an alternation task. Saccharine and mPAE adult Long-Evans rats were trained to alternate between outbound arms of an M-maze after a delay. Here we report that female rats required a significantly greater number of training days; mPAE does not have a considerable effect on delayed non-match spatial alternation behavior.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Benjamin Clark

Second Committee Member

Jeremy Hogeveen

Third Committee Member

Nathan Pentkowski

Language

English

Keywords

Spatial memory, Prenatal alcohol exposure, Moderate Prenatal alcohol exposure, Sex-specific, Spatial Alternation

Document Type

Thesis

Download

Included in

Psychology Commons

Share

COinS