Fig. 3.

Modulation of the Latent Inhibition (LI) Effect by Periadolescent Antipsychotic and Antidepressant Drug Treatment in Offspring Born to PolyI:C-Treated and Control (CON) Mothers. LI was assessed in a 2-way active avoidance procedure, in which a white noise stimulus served as the to-be-conditioned stimulus (CS) and electric footshock as the unconditioned stimulus. To index conditioned avoidance learning, the mean number of avoidance shuttles performed on successive 10-trial blocks was analyzed and depicted in the figure. LI is manifested when subjects pre-exposed to the CS (PE) display retarded active avoidance learning relative to non-preexposed (NPE) subjects. (a) A clear LI effect was observed in adult CON offspring treated with vehicle (VEH) during periadolescence, as well as in CON offspring exposed to periadolescent haloperidol (HAL) or clozapine (CLZ) treatment. Chronic treatment with fluoxetine (FLX) led to the complete abolition of LI in adult offspring born to CON mothers. (b) Prenatal immune challenge by PolyI:C led to the loss of LI in VEH-treated offspring. Chronic HAL or CLZ treatment, but not FLX treatment during periadolescence, prevented from the emergence of PolyI:C-induced LI disruption in adulthood. *P < .05, **P < .01, and ***P < .001, based on restricted ANOVAs. The number of subjects in each group is listed in table 1. All values are means ± standard error of the mean.