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Effects of cocaine on the rat cerebral commissure
Author(s) -
Ojima Kazuya,
Abiru Hitoshi,
Fukui Yuko
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/0736-5748(95)00105-0
Subject(s) - corpus callosum , anterior commissure , commissure , sexual dimorphism , sexual differentiation , anatomy , sagittal plane , psychology , medicine , neuroscience , biology , biochemistry , gene
We investigated the effects of cocaine on the corpus callosum, the nerve fibre bundle that connects the bilateral cerebral hemispheres. Our experiments in rats confirmed that, in the control group, the mid‐sagittal area of the corpus callosum in the adult male was significantly larger than this area in the female. Early postnatal exposure to cocaine abolished this sexual dimorphism, that is, cocaine‐treated males had a significantly smaller callosal area than the control males. Cocaine induced no significant changes in the weight of the body or brain. There were no significant sex differences in the midline sagittal area of the anterior commissure, and no apparent effects of cocaine exposure were determined in this structure. These findings suggest that early postnatal exposure to cocaine abolishes the sexual differentiation of the corpus callosum in male rats.