Green, Victoria2026-02-042026-02-042024https://hdl.handle.net/1828/23127Following legalization, cannabis rates have been increasing, and despite low self-reporting, it is known that cannabis is now one of the most commonly used drugs during pregnancy. In crossing both the placental and blood-brain barrier, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the most well-understood component of cannabis, has access to the developing fetal nervous system and to the neuromodulatory endocannabinoid signaling system, where it acts as a cannabinoid receptor 1 and cannabinoid receptor 2 partial agonist. To investigate possible long-term consequences of prenatal THC exposure in rats, a subtype of synaptic plasticity, long-term potentiation (LTP), was investigated in vitro in the dentate gyrus of adult male and female offspring following prenatal exposure between gestational days 5 to 20. LTP was found to be significantly decreased in both sexes of animals exposed to THC, with evidence from additional paired pulse and input-output tests suggesting that the THC-induced changes are specific to the mechanism underlying LTP and not to the basal excitability of the circuits. These findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the dangers of drug use during pregnancy.enHonours thesisDepartment of Biology