Enduring Effects of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure on Selective Attention and Reactivity to Errors: Evidence From an Animal Model

Adult Long-Evans rats, exposed prenatally to 1 of 4 doses of cocaine (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/kg iv), were tested on a 3-choice visual attention task with an olfactory distractor presented unpredictably on one third of the trials. The performance of all 3 cocaine-exposed groups was significantly mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral neuroscience 2004-04, Vol.118 (2), p.290-297
Main Authors: Gendle, Mathew H, White, Tara L, Strawderman, Myla, Mactutus, Charles F, Booze, Rosemarie M, Levitsky, David A, Strupp, Barbara J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Animal
Animal behavior
Animal Models
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Attention - physiology
Behavior, Animal
Biological and medical sciences
Cocaine
Cocaine - administration & dosage
Cocaine - adverse effects
Errors
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Injections
Male
Motivation
Neurology
Pregnancy
Prenatal development
Prenatal Exposure
Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor activities
Random Allocation
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
Rodents
Selective Attention
Smell
Vigilance. Attention. Sleep
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Summary:Adult Long-Evans rats, exposed prenatally to 1 of 4 doses of cocaine (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, or 3.0 mg/kg iv), were tested on a 3-choice visual attention task with an olfactory distractor presented unpredictably on one third of the trials. The performance of all 3 cocaine-exposed groups was significantly more disrupted than that of controls by the presentation of distractors. Results demonstrate that prenatal cocaine exposure increases susceptibility to distractors, using a task specifically designed to measure this function. In addition, the present study revealed that individuals exposed to cocaine in utero exhibit greater performance disruption after an error than controls, in certain types of tasks. Both areas of dysfunction, impaired selective attention and impaired arousal regulation, have important functional consequences in humans, possibly affecting the school performance and social development of cocaine-exposed children.
ISSN:0735-7044
1939-0084
DOI:10.1037/0735-7044.118.2.290