Effects of prenatal undernutrition on emotional reactivity and cognitive flexibility in adult sheep

Erhard, Hans W; Boissy, Alain; Rae, Mick T; Rhind, Stewart M

Abstract

The experiment reported was designed to test two hypotheses: that prenatal undernutrition (a) increases emotional reactivity and (b) impairs cognitive flexibility in sheep. The mothers of one group were fed live weight maintenance requirements throughout pregnancy (control, C) while those of another group were fed 50% of that amount from days 1 to 95 of pregnancy and 100% from then onwards (prenatal undernutrition, PU). At 18 months of age, {PU} sheep were more active during restraint (P

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 6, 2003
• Online Publication Date: Oct 8, 2003
• Publication Date: May 5, 2004
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2016
• Journal: Behavioural Brain Research
• Print ISSN: 0166-4328
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 151
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 25-35
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2003.08.003
• Keywords: Sheep; Prenatal undernutrition; Fear; Emotional reactivity; Temperament; Cognitive flexibility; Laterality; Personality
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/317797
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166432803002882