Acute perinatal asphyxia impairs non-spatial memory and alters motor coordination in adult male rats

A large body of clinical evidence suggests a possible association between perinatal asphyxia and the onset of early, as well as long-term, neurological and psychiatric disorders including cognitive deficits. The present study investigated cognitive and motor function modifications in a well characterized and clinically relevant experimental rat model of human perinatal asphyxia. The results reported here show that adult rats exposed to a single (20 min) asphyctic episode at delivery displayed: (a) a deficit in non-spatial memory, assessed in a novel object recognition task; (b) an impaired motor coordination, measured by the rotarod test. On the other hand, gross motor activity and spatial memory, evaluated in both the Y maze and the Barnes maze, were not affected by perinatal asphyxia. The results of this study provide further insights into the long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia on neurobehavioural functions.