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Avoidance conditioning in mice as a function of their mothers' training
Author(s) -
Ressler Robert H.,
Anderson Lowell T.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420060203
Subject(s) - offspring , conditioning , psychology , developmental psychology , avoidance learning , physiology , pregnancy , medicine , biology , statistics , genetics , mathematics , neuroscience
Prior to mating, inbred female mice were exposed to 1 of 4 conditions for 15 days: 50 trials of avoidance conditioning per day; equivalent (yoked) exposure to conditioned stimulus (CS) and shock, but without the response contingency; yoked exposure to the CS alone; or no experimental treatment. Within 48 hr after birth the offspring of these females were transferred to unrelated foster mothers. The treated females served as foster mothers for the offspring of untreated females. When the adult avoidance conditioning performance of the offspring was analyzed, an interaction was found between the sex of the offspring, the treatment of the mothers, and the developmental period during which the maternal treatment influenced the offspring. In general, the prenatal effect of maternal treatment was the reverse of the postnatal effect, and its effect, while somewhat greater on female offspring, also was the reverse of its effect on male offspring.