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Abstract
The literature on lead (Pb) exposure has focused in large part on hippocampal-based
learning and memory deficits, although frontoexecutive dysfunctions are known to exist
in Pb-exposed humans. This study examined the effects of perinatal (PERI) and early
postnatal (EPN) developmental low-level Pb-exposures in rats on frontoexecutive functions,
using the Attention Set-Shift Test (ASST). Control males and females performed the
ASST similarly. Male EPN rats had difficulty with simple discrimination (SD) of odors
and failed to complete the compound discrimination (CD) stage of the ASST. All other
Pb-exposed rats completed the training and testing. Male PERI rats performed worse
on the SD, intradimensional (ID), and intradimensional-reversal (ID-Rev) ASST stages
when compared to male Control rats. Female EPN rats performed similar to Controls
on the ID-Rev, whereas PERI rats performed better the trials-to-criterion on the ID-Rev
than EPN and Control rats. Pb-exposed female rats had significant difficulty performing
the ED/ED-Rev stages, with the number of trials-to-criterion double that required
by Pb-exposed and Control male rats and Control female rats. Together, the ASST results
showed that developmental Pb-exposure induces frontoexecutive dysfunction that persists
into adulthood, with different sex-based vulnerabilities dependent upon the time-period
of neurotoxicant exposure.