Sexually dimorphic effects of chronic prenatal restraint stress induced spatial memory impairment in postweaned male and female wistar rats

Chronic or repeated stress during human fetal brain development has been associated with various learning, behavioral and mood disorders manifesting into adulthood. This study examined the effects of prenatal stress on the postnatal expression of sexually differentiated spatial memory in male and female wistar rats. Pregnant dams were subjected to restraint stress 6 hours per day during 11-21 days of pregnancy. The offspring of control and prenatally stressed dams were tested for spatial memory performance. Prenatally stressed male rats exhibited spatial memory deficits evidenced by longer target quadrant entry latencies and less time spent in the target quadrant. Prenatal stress had no effect on the spatial memory performance in female rats. Thus prenatal stress altered subsequent spatial memory performance in a sex-specific manner. These data reinforce the view that prenatal stress affects behavioral development interfering with sex differences. These data have implications for the effects of prenatal stress on the development of sexually dimorphic learning disabilities in a spatial memory task.