Behavioural effects brain structures involved

The experiments reported here deal with three different topics (1) the search for brain structures primarily involved in lead-induced neurobehavioural dysfunction, (2) the influence of the time span between indirect maternal exposure and age at behavioural testing in the rat, and (3) the role of lead in central and peripheral visual processes in monkeys. The results indicate that there are differences in the effects of lead exposure and hippocampal lesions, that permanent post-weaning lead exposure does not add to the neurobehavioural deficit due to indirect maternal exposure, and that in monkeys parameters of the visual evoked potentials and electroretinograms are altered by lead. 

Since iron is involved in many central nervous system processes that could affect infant behaviour and development, iron deficiency has adverse effects on brain development, both pre- and post-natal. In various epidemiological studies, it is reported that children with iron-deficiency anaemia have poorer performances on tests of some specific cognitive function. Animal experiments have identified some of the defects of reduced iron availability on brain function, which include post-translational changes (which result in a failure of iron incorporation into protein structures which are subsequently degraded), vulnerability of the developing hippocampus (with loss of the neuronal metabolic marker cytochrome c oxidase), and altered dendritic stmcture. Iron deficiency will also have a direct effect on myelin, including a decrease in myelin lipids and proteins, as well as neurotransmitter systems, since iron... 

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