The observation that the effects of cross-generational THC exposure were most prevalent in the dorsal striatum, together with our previously published data pointing to behavioral impairments (e.g. increased “compulsive-like” drug seeking and stereotypy, (Szutorisz et al., 2014)) are interesting given the strong role of the dorsal striatum in regulating motor behaviors. We therefore monitored the locomotor activity of adult male and female offspring in an open field test (Fig. 4). ANOVA analysis with repeated measures revealed a significant effect of parental THC history (F(1,18)=6.12, p=0.02). Post hoc pairwise t-test comparisons indicated decreased locomotor movements during the first 30 minutes (generally reflective of novelty exploration) of the test session (p<0.05) in females. No difference in locomotor activity was observed in males. In conclusion, the abnormal locomotor behavior associated with parental THC exposure in F1 females is consistent with the hypothesis that striatal molecular abnormalities in components of the glutamatergic system might relate to a motor behavioral functional outcome in adulthood.
