Hybrid vigour and maternal environment in mice. III. Hippocampal mossy fibres and behaviour.

Inbred BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice as well as their F1 hybrids were reared in either an inbred or hybrid maternal environment prenatally and/or postnatally, and were later tested for several behaviours prior to histological study of the brain at 100 days after birth. Whereas measures of spatial memory showed hybrid vigour or overdominance, measures of hippocampal mossy fibres showed intermediate inheritance. Brain-behaviour correlations within a strain were generally very small, and effects of maternal environment on hippocampal morphology were not significant.