FETAL LEARNING IN UTERO

心理生物学研究的一个明显含义是 早期事件在塑造后续发展中的重要性。 观察和操纵啮齿动物胚胎允许 对产前行为发育过程的调查，并有 将学习和记忆的发育起源追溯到产前 句号。胎鼠模型表现出了比新生儿研究更多的优势， 因为胎儿缺乏与哺乳相关的刺激的经验 或母性行为。胎儿也可以维持在一个 不需要主动行为护理的实验环境 母亲。大鼠胚胎提供了一种简单的哺乳动物系统 联想是如何获得和记忆的实验研究 储存在一个不完整的神经系统中，这个神经系统不断地 在个体发育的早期迅速变化。产前的感官体验是 通过将刺激呈现给单个胎儿受试者来控制 在相对稳定的感官背景下。这项提案介绍了 触觉和化学感觉刺激，模仿 新生儿环境，包括人造乳头和牛奶。这些 刺激可靠地唤起幼稚的行为和生理反应 胎儿受试者，包括通过牛奶激活胎儿阿片系统， 并可以通过它们的联系支持胎儿的学习。阿片活性 也可以通过给药选择性激动剂和 针对个别胎儿受试者的拮抗药物。胎儿的反应 是通过观察运动行为来衡量的，包括协调动作 模式。物种-典型的运动反应将作为行为 测量阿片类药物参与胎儿联想学习的生物测定法 和记忆。这项研究计划将调查(A) 获得条件反射，(B)胎儿反应的特异性 人工乳头，(C)条件化对阿片类药物反应的影响 (D)与乳头有关的记忆和记忆， 以及(E)阿片类药物参与胎儿学习的个体发育变化。这个 使用与生态相关和适合发展的感官 手法为研究胎儿学习提供了一种量化的手段 儿童发育中神经系统综合输出量的评估 完好无损的动物。

One of the clear implications of psychobiological research is the importance of early events in shaping subsequent development. Observation and manipulation of rodent fetuses has permitted investigation of the process of prenatal behavioral development, and has traced the developmental origins of learning and memory to the prenatal period. The fetal rat model presents advantages over neonatal study, because the fetus lacks experience with stimuli associated with suckling or maternal behavior. The fetus also can be maintained in an experimental setting that does not require active behavioral care by the mother. The rat fetus provides a simple mammalian system for experimental investigation of how associations are acquired and memories are stored within an incomplete nervous system that undergoes constant and rapid change during early ontogeny. Prenatal sensory experience is controlled by presentation of stimuli to individual fetal subjects against a relatively stable sensory background. This proposal introduces tactile and chemosensory stimuli that mimic important features of the neonatal environment, including an artificial nipple and milk. These stimuli reliably evoke behavioral and physiological responses from naive fetal subjects, including activation of the fetal opioid system by milk, and can support fetal learning through their association. Opioid activity also can be manipulated by administration of selective agonist and antagonist drugs to individual fetal subjects. Responses of the fetus are measured by observing motor behavior, including coordinated action patterns. Species-typical motor responses will serve as behavioral bioassays for measuring opioid involvement in fetal associative learning and memory. This program of research will investigate (a) the acquisition of conditioning, (b) the specificity of fetal responses to the artificial nipple, (c) effects of conditioning on opioid responses evoked by milk, (d) memory and retention of experiences with the nipple, and (e) ontogenetic changes in opioid involvement in fetal learning. The use of ecologically relevant and developmentally appropriate sensory manipulations to study fetal learning provides a means for quantitative assessment of the integrated output of the developing nervous system in the intact animal.