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Behavioral Teratology: A New Frontier in Neurobehavioral Research

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Book cover Teratogenesis and Reproductive Toxicology

Part of the book series: Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology ((HEP,volume 65))

Abstract

Behavioral teratology represents an integration of teratology with experimental psychology, and is primarily concerned with the study of neurobehavioral changes that result from exposure of germ cells, embryos, fetuses, and immature postnatal individuals to a variety of environmental disturbances and events. Like its parent discipline, teratology, these include drugs, industrial chemicals, pesticides, food additives and preservatives, and environmental pollutants, as well as irradiation, stress, infectious agents, and endocrine and metabolic disturbances (Wilson 1973). Its major objective is the description of the behavioral effects induced by these conditions and an understanding of the embryopathic mechanisms by which they are produced. I should emphasize, however, the current state of behavioral teratology as a fledgling discipline; its subject matter remains largely unexplored and uncharted, its methodology has been uneven and occasionally wanting, and its accomplishments strike a tenuous balance between false starts and palpable inroads made by a few pioneering researchers. But despite its immaturity and tentative beginnings, there should be no doubt that it is emerging as a new scientific specialty.

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Authors
  1. D. E. Hutchings
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jefferson Medical College, 1020 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    E. Marshall Johnson Ph.D. (Professor and Chairman of Department of Anatomy, Director of Daniel Baugh Institute) (Professor and Chairman of Department of Anatomy, Director of Daniel Baugh Institute)

  2. Department of Anatomy, Daniel Baugh Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, 1020 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    Devendra M. Kochhar Ph.D.

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Hutchings, D.E. (1983). Behavioral Teratology: A New Frontier in Neurobehavioral Research. In: Johnson, E.M., Kochhar, D.M. (eds) Teratogenesis and Reproductive Toxicology. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 65. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-81919-3_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-81919-3_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-81921-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-81919-3

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