BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY OF THE FETUS

对胎儿健康发育的担忧继续滋生 对产前行为有相当大的兴趣，但相对知之甚少 关于胎儿的行为和对其子宫内变化的反应 环境。尽管技术进步，但方法问题 伦理方面的考虑将对人类胎儿的研究限制在 间接监测和产后推理。因此，直接观察 而且，只有在非人类受试者身上才能进行实验。近期 现在技术的发展使子宫内的精确操作成为可能。 大鼠胎鼠的环境及宫内行为观察。 用可逆性脊椎手术制备的妊娠雌性大鼠 麻醉和她的子宫外置于温生理盐水浴中， 宫内环境可以通过羊膜内注射来控制， 口腔内输液给予的化学感觉刺激和行为 胎儿通过子宫壁，通过羊膜直接观察 膜，或在不受限制的流体介质中。这些程序化工具 现在允许研究发育中的哺乳动物胎儿在其环境中。 这份研究职业发展奖的申请书概述了 调查大鼠行为生物学的研究方案 胎儿。拟议方案的主要目标有三个：(A) 描述未经操纵的大鼠的正常行为发育 胎儿在宫内；(B)描述胎儿厌恶的行为 和胃口的学习情景，并探讨胎儿的作用 在随后的行为发展中学习；以及(C)调查 产前行为与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.