The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the learning abilities of the fetus in utero. Although concern for the healthy development of the fetus continues to spawn considerable interest in prenatal behavior, relatively little is yet known about how a fetus behaves and responds to changes within its uterine environment. In spite of technological advances, methodological problems and ethical considerations have limited the study of the human fetus to indirect monitoring and postnatal inference. Therefore, direct observation and experimentation is possible only with nonhuman subjects. Techniques developed in our laboratory and elsewhere now enable precise manipulation of the intrauterine environment of rat fetuses and observation of fetal behavior in utero. In brief, these procedures involve exposing the rat fetus in utero to a taste/odor stimulus followed by either an aversive intraperitoneal injection of LiCl or a reinforcing intraoral infusion of milk. After the pregnant female is prepared by chemomyelotomy, which produces an irreversible spinal anesthesia without the use of drugs, fetuses that have been conditioned using aversive or appetitive procedures can be delivered out of the uterus into a warm saline bath, maintaining the placental-uterine attachment intact, and their behavior observed. Fetuses that have been conditioned using aversive or appetitive procedures can be reexposed to the taste-odor stimulus and their responses analyzed to evaluate a variety of hypotheses concerning fetal learning in utero. Four general studies of fetal learning are proposed: (1) to determine the earliest prenatal age at which learned taste/odor aversions can be acquired; (2) to characterize fetal responses in utero to aversively conditioned taste/odor stimuli as a function of developmental age; (3) to evaluate the ability of fetuses to acquire and express appetitive learning in utero; and (4) to investigate the influence of behavioral state (e.g., fetal activation) and environmental context (e.g., ambient temperature) on the acquisition and expression of fetal learning in utero. These experiments will provide needed information on the behavior of the fetus in aversive and appetitive learning situations and begin to explore the role of fetal learning in subsequent behavioral development.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01HD016102-04
Application #
3313440
Study Section
Biopsychology Study Section (BPO)
Project Start
1982-04-01
Project End
1988-03-31
Budget Start
1985-04-01
Budget End
1986-03-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1985
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Oregon State University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
053599908
City
Corvallis
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97339
Bacher, Leigh F; Smotherman, William P (2004) Systematic temporal variation in the rate of spontaneous eye blinking in human infants. Dev Psychobiol 44:140-5
Bacher, Leigh F; Smotherman, William P (2004) Spontaneous eye blinking in human infants: a review. Dev Psychobiol 44:95-102
Smotherman, William P (2003) Classical conditioning in the rat fetus. III. Retention, extinction, and re-activation of the conditioned response (CR). Dev Psychobiol 42:181-93
Smotherman, William P (2002) Early experience with the artificial nipple. Dev Psychobiol 41:1-14
Smotherman, William P (2002) Classical conditioning in the rat fetus: involvement of mu and kappa opioid systems in the conditioned response. Dev Psychobiol 40:104-15
Smotherman, William P (2002) Classical conditioning in the rat fetus: temporal characteristics and behavioral correlates of the conditioned response. Dev Psychobiol 40:116-30
Bacher, L F; Smotherman, W P; Robertson, S S (2001) Effects of warmth on newborn rats' motor activity and oral responsiveness to an artificial nipple. Behav Neurosci 115:675-82
Petrov, E S; Varlinskaya, E I; Smotherman, W P (2000) The first suckling episode in the rat: the role of endogenous activity at mu and kappa opioid receptors. Dev Psychobiol 37:129-43
Bacher, L F; Robertson, S S; Smotherman, W P (2000) An intrinsic source of behavioral regulation that influences discrete responses to cues important for the initiation of suckling. Behav Neurosci 114:594-601
Petrov, E S; Nizhnikov, M E; Smotherman, W P (2000) Milk delivery schedules and stomach preloading alter patterns of suckling behavior by newborn rats on a surrogate nipple. Behav Neurosci 114:783-96

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