Sensation and behavior of fetus and newborn

描述(申请人提供)：发育过程在刺激中被激活和塑造。刺激或体验的来源可以在发育中的有机体的栖息地中找到。从胎儿到新生儿的转变是以分娩和出生为先兆的，其特点是大量的神经、生理和行为变化，有助于成功地适应宫外世界。建议的研究集中在与宫缩、儿茶酚胺系统、成人表型及其因果关系相关的神经和行为发育的宫内决定因素。挪威大鼠将被用于跨越行为、生理、神经和分子分析水平的心理生物学研究。围产期学习的生物行为研究将分析宫内化学感觉经验、分娩收缩和出生时哺乳开始。将研究分娩的具体影响，即躯体感觉刺激和间歇性低氧，并与分娩并发症有关。与出生相关的去甲肾上腺素(NE)和多巴胺(DA)的激活将使用药理学试剂进行分析。C-fos的神经上调将用于指导涉及儿茶酚胺系统关键角色的大脑定位研究。为了确定宫内经历和后期发育阶段之间的关系，我们将分析成人的表型及其出现。我们的框架认识到哺乳动物的母亲是诱导、引导和调节发育变化的途径。一些研究将分析母犬对不同宫内经历的幼崽是否会有不同的反应。这项研究计划对许多生物医学问题具有广泛和重要的影响，包括早产、分娩并发症和应激、精神和病理生理障碍，包括精神分裂症、药物滥用、注意力缺陷多动障碍(ADHD)和多发性抽动症(TS)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Developmental process are activated and shaped by stimulation. Sources of stimulation or experience can be found within the developing organism's habitat. The transition from fetus to newborn infant, heralded by labor and birth, is characterized by a multitude of neural, physiological and behavioral changes that assist successful acclimation to the extrauterine world. The proposed studies focus on intrauterine determinants of neural and behavioral development in relation to labor contractions, the catecholamine system, adult phenotypes and their causal relations. The Norway rat will be used in psychobiological investigations spanning behavioral, physiological, neural and molecular levels of analysis. Intrauterine chemosensory experience, labor contractions, and suckling onset at birth will be analyzed in biobehavioral studies of perinatal learning. Specific effects of labor, i.e., somatosensory stimulation and intermittent hypoxia, will be studied and related to birth complications. Birth-related activation of norepinephrine (NE), dopamine (DA), will be analyzed using pharmacological agents. Neural upregulation of c-fos will be used to guide brain localization studies involving key players in catecholamine systems. To identify relations between intrauterine experience and later developmental phases, adult phenotypes and their emergence will be analyzed. Our framework recognizes the mammalian mother as a pathway for inducing, canalizing, and regulating developmental change. Some studies will analyze whether dams respond differently to pups with different intrauterine experiences. This research program has broad and significant implications for numerous biomedical concerns, including premature birth, birth complications, and stress, psychiatric and pathophysiological disorders, including schizophrenia, substance abuse, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Tourette's Syndrome (TS).