BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY OF THE FETUS

对胎儿健康发育的关注不断催生 相当大的兴趣在产前行为，但相对知之甚少 关于胎儿的行为以及对子宫内变化的反应 环境 尽管技术进步，方法问题 和伦理方面的考虑限制了对人类胎儿的研究， 间接监测和产后推断。 因此，直接观察 实验只能在非人类的实验对象身上进行 最近 技术的发展现在能够精确地操作子宫内的 大鼠胎仔的环境和胎仔在子宫内的行为观察。 通过手术制备的妊娠雌性大鼠， 麻醉和她的子宫外部进入一个温暖的盐水浴， 子宫内环境可以通过羊膜内注射来控制， 通过口内输注递送的化学感觉刺激，以及 通过子宫壁、羊膜直接观察胎儿， 膜，或在不受限制的流体介质内。 这些程序工具 现在允许研究在其环境中发育的哺乳动物胎儿。 这个研究职业发展奖的申请概述了一个一般的 一个研究老鼠行为生物学的项目 胎儿 拟议方案的主要目标有三个：（a） 来描述未被操纵的大鼠的正常行为发育 胎儿在子宫内;（B）描述胎儿在厌恶性行为中的行为 和食欲的学习情况，并探讨胎儿的作用， 在随后的行为发展中学习;以及（c）调查 产前行为和行为发育之间的相互作用， 形态异常

Concern for the healthy development of the fetus continues to spawn considerable interest in prenatal behavior, yet relatively little is 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. Recent technical developments now enable precise manipulation of the intrauterine environment of the rat fetus and observation of fetal behavior in utero. With the pregnant female rat surgically prepared by reversible spinal anesthesia and her uterus externalized into a warm saline bath, the intrauterine environment can be manipulated by intra-amniotic injection, chemosensory stimulation delivered by intraoral infusion, and behavior of the fetus directly observed through the uterine wall, through the amniotic membrane, or within an unrestrained fluid medium. These procedural tools now permit study of the developing mammalian fetus in its environment. This Research Career Development Award application outlines a general program of research to investigate the behavioral biology of the rat fetus. The principal objective of the proposed program is threefold: (a) to describe the normal behavioral development of the unmanipulated rat fetus in utero; (b) to characterize the behavior of the fetus in aversive and appetitive learning situations and to explore the role of fetal learning in subsequent behavioral development; and (c) to investigate the interplay between prenatal behavior and the development of behavioral and morphological anomalies.