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Spatial Learning And Stress Response Of Male Rats Prenatally Exposed To Dexamethasone, Joseph John Donohoe
Spatial Learning And Stress Response Of Male Rats Prenatally Exposed To Dexamethasone, Joseph John Donohoe
Master’s Theses
Dexamethasone is routinely administered to women at risk for a preterm birth in order to enhance fetal lung development and reduce uterine contractions. Research has demonstrated possible behavioral abnormalities in adulthood as a result of dexamethasone treatment. Using nonlinear mixed effects modeling, this study found thatprenatal dexamethasone treatment impaired spatial learning and memory of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Prenatal dexamethasone treatment also led to more anxiety related behaviors on Elevated Plus Maze testing 1.5 hours after a stress challenge. Because theassumptions underlying the independent samples t-test were violated, the randomization test was used to compare groups on the Elevated Plus …