Acute perinatal asphyxia impairs non-spatial memory and alters motor coordination in adult male rats

A large body of clinical evidence suggests a possible association between perinatal asphyxia and the onset of early, as well as long-term, neurological and psychiatric disorders including cognitive deWcits. The present study investigated cognitive and motor function modiWcations in a well characterized and clinically relevant experimental rat model of human perinatal asphyxia. The results reported here show that adult rats exposed to a single (20 min) asphyctic episode at delivery displayed: (a) a deWcit in non-spatial memory, assessed in a novel object recognition task; (b) an impaired motor coordination, measured by the rotarod test. On the other hand, gross motor activity and spatial memory, evaluated in both the Y maze and the Barnes maze, were not aVected by perinatal asphyxia. The results of this study provide further insights into the longterm eVects of perinatal asphyxia on neurobehavioural functions.This study was supported by funds from “Regione Autonoma della Sardegna” LR 19/96 (2003) for ScientiWc Cooperation between Italy and Chile (Italy) and by funds from Fondecyt and ICBM-Enlace grants (Chile)