Table 1.
Behavioral protocol for attentional set shifting.
Figure 1.
Effects of gestational stress on physiological parameters of mothers and pups.
Exposure to chronic stress during pregnancy decreased gestational (a) and postpartum (b) weight gain but increased relative adrenal weight (c). Gestational stress also led to a reduction in average pup weight at birth (d). Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.
Figure 2.
Chronic gestational stress increases postpartum depressive-like, but not anxiety-like, behaviors.
Exposure to chronic stress during pregnancy increased the percentage of time postpartum females spent immobile in the forced swim test (a). Chronic gestational stress did not alter anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze. Stressed and unstressed mothers spent a similar percentage of time (b) and made a similar number of entries (c) into the open arms. Locomotor activity, as assessed by closed arms entries in the EPM (d), was unaffected by gestational stress. Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.
Figure 3.
Chronic gestational stress impairs postpartum maternal care.
Exposure to chronic stress during pregnancy increased the percentage of time postpartum females spent away from the nest (a) and reduced arched-back nursing (b). Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.
Figure 4.
Chronic gestational stress impairs cognitive flexibility.
Compared to postpartum females who were unstressed, postpartum females stressed in pregnancy showed impairments on the reversal (REV) and extra dimensional (EDS) phases of the attentional set shifting task as demonstrated by more trials (a) and errors (b) to reach criterion. The number of trials (a) and errors (b) to reach criterion for the simple discrimination (SD), compound discrimination (CD) and intradimensional shift (IDS) did not differ between unstressed and stressed mothers. Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.
Figure 5.
Chronic gestational reduces mPFC dendritic spine density and alters spine morphology.
Postpartum females subjected to chronic gestational stress had fewer dendritic spines on apical and basal dendrites of layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons in the mPFC (a). Representative DiI labeled dendritic segments, scale bar = 1 µm (b). Exposure to chronic gestational stress also caused a shift in spine morphology such that there was a decrease in the proportion of thin spines but an increase in the proportion of mushroom spines in stressed mothers (c). Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.
Figure 6.
Chronic gestational reduces the number of PSD-95-ir puncta in the mPFC.
Postpartum females stressed in pregnancy had fewer PSD-95-ir puncta in the mPFC (a). Representative confocal images of PSD-95-ir puncta in the mPFC, scale bar = 5 µm (b). Bars represent mean ± SEM, * p<0.05.