This thesis examines both behavioral and anatomical effects of prenatal exposure of
Valproic Acid (VPA) on Long Evans rats. Tactile stimulation (TS) is then used to
investigate its’ effect on remediating any abnormalities VPA may produce. Several
behavioral tests were done to assess the behavioral effects of VPA and TS. It was found
that VPA had an effect of many of the tasks, whereas, TS had almost none with the
exception of an effect on females in the elevated plus maze. However, anatomical data
showed that TS had a profound effect on neuronal branch order, cell complexity, and
spine density in pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, the orbitofrontal
cortex and the amygdala. Where VPA decreased the above in all of these areas, TS
increased neuronal complexity in the aforementioned structures. This study demonstrates
that prenatal exposure to VPA is a viable model of autism in rats and that TS has
significant anatomical effects in these animals as well as in control animals / xi, 98 leaves; 29 cm
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:ALU.w.uleth.ca/dspace#10133/3126 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Richards, Sonja |
| Contributors | Kolb, Bryan |
| Publisher | Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Dept. of Neuroscience, 2011, Arts and Science, Department of Neuroscience |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | Thesis (University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Arts and Science) |
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