estimation of toxicant effects; uncertainties in the degree ofmeasurement equivalence when tests are transported into differentlanguages and cultures; and the influence of normal developmentalbrain changes on the domain of functioning and the stability andpredictive validity of test scores. Conclusion: The field of environ-mental epidemiology is nearing a stage where a formal set of meth-odological and reporting guidelines could be developed to help in thedesign of future studies, as has been done with clinical trials, studiesof diagnostic assessment tools, and medical epidemiological studies.Supported by Cefic-LRI.

doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2010.04.037

NBTS37Weight-of-the-evidence assessment in neurodevelopmentalepidemiology: A plea for consistency

Michael GoodmanEmory University, Atlanta, GA, United States

doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2010.04.038

NBTS38Effects of domoic acid on early visual memory in infantsfrom the Coastal Cohort

Kimberly Granta, Tom Burbachera, Sparkle Robertsb, Lynn Grattanb

aUniversity of Washington, Seattle, WA, United StatesbUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

This article has been withdrawn at the request of the authors. ThePublisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found athttp://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy.

doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2010.04.039

NBTS39Acute postnatal exposure to the pentaBDE commercial mixtureDE-71 at low doses (5 or 15 mg/kg/day) does not produce learningor attention deficits in rats

Lori DriscollColorado College, Colorado Springs, CO, United States

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are additive flame retar-dants used in the manufacturing of furniture, household appliancesand many textiles. Human PBDE exposure occurs primarily throughinhalation and ingestion; in infants, high doses are ingested in breastmilk. Previously in our laboratory, learning deficits were observed inrats exposed to DE-71, a commercial PBDE mixture, at a dose of 30 mg/kg/day during the second postnatal week. The purpose of the currentstudy was to determine if this effect is observed at lower doses of DE-71.Rats received one of three daily oral treatment doses of DE-71 (0mg/kg,5 mg/kg, or 15 mg/kg) from postnatal days 6–12 and were tested asadults on variations of a 5-choice serial reaction time task. Learning

was measured by acquisition rate of the initial visual discriminationtask, in which the rats were trained to make a nosepoke to therandomly selected port in which a visual cue appeared. Attention wasassessed by measuring the rats' response accuracy and error typeswhen the visual cues were made brief and unpredictable. Nosignificant effect of DE-71 treatment group was found on any of thedependent variables, suggesting that the investigated doses werebelow threshold to induce impairment in these tasks. Therefore, futureresearch should investigate doses between 15 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg inorder to determine the critical levels required to generate learningimpairments.

doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2010.04.040

NBTS40Gene-toxicant interactions: Developmental PBDE effects on thebehavioral phenotype of the Mecp2-308 Rett syndromemouse model

Mari Golub, Roxanne Vallero, Joanne Suarez, Ta Tram Anh,Pessah Isaac, Berman Robert, LaSalle JanineUniversity of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States

Gene-environment interactions may play a role in childhoodneurobehavioral disease. Chronic low dose developmental exposureto the flame retardant PBDE-47 (0.03 mg/kg d, oral administration tothe dam from 30 day prior to mating to weaning of the litter) wasstudied for interaction with the behavioral phenotype of the Mecp2-308mouse, a transgenic model for Rett syndrome. Infant, juvenile andadult tests were included in the offspring behavioral test battery.During the dosing period, PBDE-47 influenced sensorymaturation andseparation-induced vocalizations but later tests were not affected.Interactions between genotype and PBDE occurred on some testsimportant to the intellectual and social phenotype associated withreduced MECP2 expression in humans, namely infant vocalizationduring social isolation, juvenile social preference, and adult learningandmemory. The interactions occurred primarily for the heterozygousMecp2308/+ female rather than in the hemizygous Mecp2308/y malessuggesting a greater sensitivity of the phenotype to environmentaltoxicants in females. Supported by NIH ES015171.

doi:10.1016/j.ntt.2010.04.041

NBTS41Locomotor responding in adolescent CD-1 mice following acuteand chronic cocaine administration is unaffected by low doseperinatal bisphenol A exposure

Jenna Nelms, Abby Meyer, Mellessa Miller, Melissa Ward, Helen SableUniversity of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States

Developmental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in mice has beenshown to result in estrogenic endocrine disruption. Previous researchhas demonstrated that developmental exposure to BPA alters thebehavioral response to psychostimulants. Female, CD-1 mice wereexposed to 0, 2, 20, or 200 µg/kg/day BPA or to 5 µg/kg/day ethinylestradiol (EE2, positive control) throughout gestation and lactation.Behavioral sensitization to cocaine was assessed in one male andfemale per litter. Beginning when the offspring were between 26–

NBTS 2010 Abstract 507