[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

measured by AUC-I, when controlling for prenatal cocaine exposure, group size, smoking, age,
hours of sleep, and how stimulating the home environment was at age 4. Females were
significantly less reactive to the stressor, as measured by AUC-I. The effects of parental
nurturance and gender were independent of the peak anxiety level reported throughout the
protocol as well as stressor appraisal. Parental nurturance and gender were not related to total
cortisol exposure, as measured by AUC-G. Hours of sleep the night before testing was negatively
related to AUC-G and prenatal cocaine exposure was positively related to AUC-G. Higher levels
of parental nurturance within the range of normal variation at age 4 thus predict an increased
cortisol response to social stress in adolescence, independent of the effects of a stimulating home
environment, in a low-income, African-American sample. These results suggest that parental
nurturance has a long-lasting effect on the HPA axis and is a promising candidate as a
mechanism underlying the relationship between early adverse experience and cognitive and
socioemotional outcomes.
Disclosures: D.A. Hackman, None; M.J. Farah, None; L. Kobrin, None; L. Betancourt,
None; H. Hurt, None.
Poster
281. Stress and the Brain: Early Life Experience I
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 281.19/NN33
Topic: E.06.e. Early life experience
Support: SFB 779
Title: Prenatal stress affects dendritic and synaptic development in the hippocampus and
amygdala in a sex-specific manner and can partly be reversed by intensifying postnatal maternal
care
Authors: *A. BRAUN 1 , M. S. MURMU 1 , M. WEINSTOCK-ROSIN 2 , J. BOCK 1 ;
1 Zoolog/Developmental Neurobiol, Inst. Biol, Otto von Guericke U, Magdeburg, Germany;
2 Dept. Pharmacol., Hebrew Univ. Med. Ctr., Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract: It has become increasingly evident that deleterious and stressful life events
experienced by a mother during pregnancy adversely affects the development of the offspring
and constitutes a risk factor for developing psychopathology. The effects of prenatal stress (PS)
on dendritic morphology was analyzed in neurons of the hippocampal CA1, CA3 regions and the
dentate gyrus and the amygdala of rats. At the age of 21 days apical dendritic length of
pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region was reduced in PS males (-27%) and females (-22%)