Phthalates are chemicals interfering with the function of testosterone and are suspected to play a role in the emergence of neurodevelopmental diseases. This could be due to interference with brain development for which optimal testosterone levels are essential. We investigated the effect of prenatal and early postnatal exposure to a phthalate mixture on the anogenital distance (AGD), plasma testosterone levels and social behavior in rats. Pregnant rats were exposed to a mixture of diethylhexyl, diisononyl and dibutyl phthalate, each at a dose of 4.5 mg/kg/day, from gestational day 15 to postnatal day 4. A social interaction test was performed to assess sociability in the three ontogenetic stages (weaning, puberty, adulthood). AGD was measured in adulthood to assess changes in prenatal testosterone levels. Plasma testosterone levels were measured in adults by a radioimmunoassay. The total frequency and time of socio-cohesive interactions were decreased in phthalate exposed females in weaning, puberty and adulthood. Phthalate exposed males showed a decrease in the frequency of social interactions in weaning only. Shorter anogenital distance was observed in adult males exposed to phthalates. Decreased testosterone levels were observed in the exposed group in both sexes. Our results suggest that early developmental phthalate exposure may play an important role in the hormonal and behavioral changes associated with several neurodevelopmental diseases.
Although it is generally considered that the study of social psychology in the former Czechoslovakia commenced in the 1960s, the author here establishes the importance of the virtually forgotten earlier years of the discipline. The first Czech student of social psychology was a prominent sociologist and member of the Prague sociological school, Otakar Machotka (1899- 1970), whose interest in matters psychological commenced in the 1940s and whose research into the subject continued during his period of exile in America in the 1950s and 1960s. Machotka’s recently discovered post-war manuscript on the subject of unconscious agents in social behaviour, which is published in extenso here, reveals the original and innovative character of the author’s approach; at the same time, it offers an important testimony to the epoch both in terms of the discipline itself and the wider society. The erstwhile unknown manuscript also contains the first stage of Machotka’s struggle for an explanation for quisling behaviour during the Second World War, which he later published in his 1964 book., Zdeněk R. Nešpor., and Obsahuje seznam literatury