Effects Of Restriction Of Maternal Uterine Blood-Supply On Postnatal Conditioning Of Heart-Rate And Behavioral-Development In Dogs

AbstractAn examination was made of the heart rate responses during aversive classical conditioning of 5- to 6-week-old Labrador puppies exposed to restricted maternal uterine blood supply during gestation. The direction of the heart rate responses of the treated puppies was consistently decelerative, whereas nontreated controls showed both decelerations and accelerations. The absence of accelerative heart rate changes, combined with the observed depression of base level heart rate and attenuated emotional behavior in the experimental animals relative to controls suggests that uterine blood supply insufficiency may have impaired normal autonomic development in utero.