Abstract / Summary
Behavioral persistence poses a clinical challenge in patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as targeted problematic behaviors resist elimination and reemerge upon treatment discontinuation (resurgence). Prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA) has been proposed as a rat model of ASD that would increase behavioral persistence, but findings in this model have been inconsistent. This study investigated whether prenatal VPA exposure increases persistence by assessing the persistence of target responding on a three-phase resurgence procedure: Training (target response reinforced), Elimination (target response placed on extinction while an alternative response is reinforced), and Testing (alternative response also placed on extinction, producing resurgence of target responding). Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats prenatally exposed to saline (SAL) or VPA were compared. Target and alternative response rates did not differ between SAL and VPA animals in either sex at any phase, nor did the proportional change from target to alternative responding during Elimination or the magnitude of resurgence at Testing. Males did, however, display higher resurgence magnitudes than females in both prenatal conditions. Together, these findings indicate that VPA-exposed rats do not behave more persistently, but contribute to the investigations of potentially ASD-related traits in this animal model in a behavioral analytic perspective.