UNASSIGNED: @entity1 epidemiological studies have provided compelling evidence that prenatal exposure to stress is associated with significantly increased risks of developing @entity146 in adulthood. Exposure to excessive maternal glucocorticoids may underlie this fetal programming effect. In the current study, we assessed how prenatal @entity619 administration during the last week of gestation affects stress reactivity and cognition in adult offspring. Stress reactivity was assessed by evaluating @entity148 -like behavior on an elevated plus maze and in an open field. In addition, to characterize the long-term cognitive outcomes of prenatal exposure to glucocorticoids, animals were assessed on two cognitive tasks, a spatial reference memory task with reversal learning and a delayed matching to position (DMTP) task. Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to @entity619 had no observable effect on @entity148 -like behavior, but affected cognition in the adult offspring. Prenatally @entity619 -exposed animals showed a transient deficit in the spatial reference memory task and a trend to faster acquisition during the reversal-learning phase. Furthermore, prenatally @entity619 -treated animals also showed faster learning of new platform positions in the DMTP task. These results suggest that fetal overexposure to glucocorticoids programs a phenotype characterized by cognitive flexibility and adaptability to frequent changes in environmental circumstances. This can be viewed as an attempt to increase the fitness of survival in a potentially hazardous postnatal environment, as predicted by intrauterine adversity. Collectively, our data suggest that prenatal exposure to @entity619 in @entity35 could be used as an animal model for studying some cognitive components of related @entity146 .

Prenatal glucocorticoid exposure in XXXX : programming effects on stress reactivity and cognition in adult offspring.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Human'] @entity146 :: ('MESH:D001523', 'Disease') :: ['psychiatric disorders'] @entity619 :: ('MESH:D003907', 'Chemical') :: ['dexamethasone'] @entity148 :: ('MESH:D001008', 'Disease') :: ['anxiety'] @entity35 :: ('10116', 'Species') :: ['rats']
@entity35 :: (10116,Species) :: ['rats']
