Treatment interventions following prenatal stress and neonatal cortical injury

Abstract

This thesis explores the potential for treatment interventions of an enriched environment and a vitamin/mineral supplemented diet toward the recovery of gestational stress and/or early cortical injury in rats. Two different intensities of prenatal stress (moderate and mild) were employed. The results showed sexually dimorphic behavioural and anatomical results that varied with the intensity of the stress. The enriched environment reversed some of the behavioural deficits related to stress and lesion. Both mild prenatal stress and the vitamin -supplemented diet reversed all frontal lesion behavioural deficits.