Prenatal Stress As A Disturbance Factor Of Behavioral Reactions And Memory In Postnatal Ontogenesis

Prenatal stress problem, which is considered to be one of the factors promoting development of such diseases as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, epilepsy and others, has recently attracted more attention on behalf of researchers. The studies concerning the prenatal stress impact on behavioral reactions of the posterity are of utmost interest. There are numerous data testifying, that increased anxiety, tendency to depression, difficulty in gaining skills, disturbance of the organism adaptation ability, which in a number of cases is accompanied with decreased vitality and weight, are observed in the animals under the prenatal stress impact. Moreover, the mentioned changes are sex- and age dependent.It should be noted, that changes under the prenatal stress impact in sexual behavior of the animals are also observed, which are manifested as sexual cycle dysfunction, preterm delivery in females, whereas in males - as libido suppression and sometimes inclination to the individuals of the same gender. The data showing that the mentioned alterations can also be accompanied with such statical changes as female masculinization and male demasculinisation and feminization are available. The impact of prenatal stress causes changes in nociceptive system as well: pain sensitivity increase, duration and strength of the pain response, as well as pain relief system dysfunction.Many scholars explain the changes observed in prenatally stressed animals by the disturbance in the development of different parts of central nervous system, particularly, neurogenesis weakening, decrease in neuron amount, dysfunction of synaptic transmission and synapsis plasticity, as well as changes in the activity of different endocrine systems. The inclusion into pathologic process of hypothalamic-hypophyseal-adrenocortical and other hormonal systems, which are under its control is of great importance.The involvement into pathologic process of other biologically important systems (cannabinoid, opioid, serotonin), which have regulatory effect on the different functions of the organism and undergo functional changes under the influence of stress factors action in prenatal period is also significantly important.