Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Karen G. Anderson

Committee Member

Raymond Joslyn

Committee Member

Michael Perone

Committee Member

Melissa D. Blank

Committee Member

Timothy R. Nurkiewicz

Abstract

Maternal electronic cigarette (ECIG) use during pregnancy raises concerns about potential risks to offspring, yet its behavioral effects remain unclear. The present studies were designed to investigate how prenatal exposure to ECIG aerosols, with and without nicotine, influences the behavior of Sprague-Dawley rat offspring. Dams were exposed to aerosols containing base liquid alone, aerosols containing base liquid with 18 mg/ml nicotine, or filtered air (control) throughout gestation. Following postnatal day 65, male offspring from 17 litters completed lever-press acquisition (Experiment 1), sustained-attending (Experiment 2), and nicotine self-administration (Experiment 3) tasks. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to compare task performance across the three exposure groups. There were transient between-group differences in measures of hyperactivity and nicotine self-administration. Rats that were prenatally exposed to nicotine-containing aerosols briefly made more premature responses and completed sessions of the sustained-attending task faster than controls (Experiment 2), and consumed less nicotine solution than rats prenatally exposed to nicotine-free aerosols or controls (Experiment 3). However, no lasting effects on offspring behavior were observed, regardless of prenatal exposure history. As the lack of any lasting significant effects is somewhat inconsistent with prior literature on prenatal nicotine exposure, further research is warranted, including more complex gestational exposure models and more extensive behavioral testing. These findings contribute to the growing literature on developmental ECIG exposure and help clarify conditions under which prenatal nicotine exposure produces lasting effects in rodent offspring behavior. These results may also inform future research efforts aimed at understanding potential risks associated with ECIG use during pregnancy.

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