Adapted from Schulz et al. 2011. Prenatal stress has sex-specific effects on the behavior of rodents in adulthood. For anxiety-related behavior in the elevated zero, prenatal stress increases anxiety (as indexed by decreased time in open areas of the zero maze) in females but not in males. In contrast, memory performance (assessed via novel object task)  is impaired in males but not females.

We use a spatial variant of the novel object recognition task to assess memory function. A rat is placed into an arena with two identical objects, allowed to explore for 5 min, and then returned to the home cage. One hour later, the rat is placed back into the test arena with the same objects, but one of the objects has changed locations within the arena. Rats have a natural interest in novelty, so if the rat remembers the previous spatial configuration of objects, he/she will investigate the object in a new locataion more than the object in the stationary location. If a rat explores both object locations equally, this suggests it doesn't remember the original spatial location.

We assess anxiety-related behaviors using the elevated zero maze. There are open and closed areas of the zero. The open areas are anxiety-provoking for rodents. As such, more time in the open area = decreased anxiety.