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Enriched Environment (enriched + environment)
Selected AbstractsTherapeutic effects of complex rearing or bFGF after perinatal frontal lesionsDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Wendy Comeau Abstract We investigated the effects of an enriched environment and/or basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on recovery from neonatal frontal injury in rats. Rats received medial frontal lesions, or sham surgery, on postnatal day (P) 2/3. In the first set of experiments (Experiments 1 and 2), rats were housed in enriched environments that consisted of a large enclosure with multiple objects (or standard housing) for 90 days beginning at weaning (P22) or in adulthood (P110). In Experiment 3, the rats either received 7 days of subcutaneous bFGF beginning on the day after surgery or bFGF plus enriched housing beginning at weaning. After the 90-day housing period, the animals were tested on a spatial navigation task and a skilled reaching task. Early lesions of the medial frontal cortex caused severe impairments in spatial learning but this deficit was markedly reduced with enriched housing, bFGF, or a combination of both, with the latter being most effective. The housing effects varied with age, however: the earlier the experience began, the better the outcome. Enriched housing increased dendritic length in cortical pyramidal neurons, an effect that was greater in the lesion than the control animals, and enriched housing reversed the lesion-induced decrease in spine density. Enriched environment increased the thickness of the cortical mantle in both lesion and controls whereas bFGF had no effect. Experience thus can affect functional and anatomical outcome after early brain injury but the effects vary with age at experience and may be facilitated by treatment with bFGF. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 50: 134,146, 2008. [source] Environmental enrichment stimulates progenitor cell proliferation in the amygdalaJOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 16 2009Hiroaki Okuda Abstract Enriched environments enhance hippocampal neurogenesis, synaptic efficacy, and learning and memory functions. Recent studies have demonstrated that enriched environments can restore learning behavior and long-term memory after significant brain atrophy and neural loss. Emotional and anxiety-related behaviors were also improved by enriched stimuli, but the effect of enriched environments on the amygdala, one of the major emotion-related structures in the central nervous system, remains largely unknown. In this study, we have focused on the effects of an enriched environment on cell proliferation and differentiation in the murine amygdala. The enriched environment increased bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive (newborn) cell numbers in the amygdala, almost all of which, immediately after a 1-week period of enrichment, expressed the oligodendrocyte progenitor marker Olig2. Furthermore, enriched stimuli significantly suppressed cell death in the amygdala. Some of the BrdU-positive cells in mice exposed to the enriched environment, but none in animals housed in the standard environment, later differentiated into astrocytes. Our findings, taken together with previous behavioral studies, suggest that progenitor proliferation and differentiation in the amygdala may contribute to the beneficial aspects of environmental enrichment such as anxiolytic effects. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Therapeutic effects of complex rearing or bFGF after perinatal frontal lesionsDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Wendy Comeau Abstract We investigated the effects of an enriched environment and/or basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on recovery from neonatal frontal injury in rats. Rats received medial frontal lesions, or sham surgery, on postnatal day (P) 2/3. In the first set of experiments (Experiments 1 and 2), rats were housed in enriched environments that consisted of a large enclosure with multiple objects (or standard housing) for 90 days beginning at weaning (P22) or in adulthood (P110). In Experiment 3, the rats either received 7 days of subcutaneous bFGF beginning on the day after surgery or bFGF plus enriched housing beginning at weaning. After the 90-day housing period, the animals were tested on a spatial navigation task and a skilled reaching task. Early lesions of the medial frontal cortex caused severe impairments in spatial learning but this deficit was markedly reduced with enriched housing, bFGF, or a combination of both, with the latter being most effective. The housing effects varied with age, however: the earlier the experience began, the better the outcome. Enriched housing increased dendritic length in cortical pyramidal neurons, an effect that was greater in the lesion than the control animals, and enriched housing reversed the lesion-induced decrease in spine density. Enriched environment increased the thickness of the cortical mantle in both lesion and controls whereas bFGF had no effect. Experience thus can affect functional and anatomical outcome after early brain injury but the effects vary with age at experience and may be facilitated by treatment with bFGF. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 50: 134,146, 2008. [source] Learning to perceive object unity: a connectionist accountDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2002Denis Mareschal To explore questions of how human infants begin to perceive partly occluded objects, we devised two connectionist models of perceptual development. The models were endowed with an existing ability to detect several kinds of visual information that have been found important in infants' and adults' perception of object unity (motion, co-motion, common motion, relatability, parallelism, texture and T-junctions). They were then presented with stimuli consisting of either one or two objects and an occluding screen. The models' task was to determine whether the object or objects were joined when such a percept was ambiguous, after specified amounts of training with events in which a subset of possible visual information was provided. The model that was trained in an enriched environment achieved superior levels of performance and was able to generalize veridical percepts to a wide range of novel stimuli. Implications for perceptual development in humans, current theories of development and origins of knowledge are discussed. [source] Environmental impoverishment and aging alter object recognition, spatial learning, and dentate gyrus astrocytesEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 3 2010Daniel G. Diniz Abstract Environmental and age-related effects on learning and memory were analysed and compared with changes observed in astrocyte laminar distribution in the dentate gyrus. Aged (20 months) and young (6 months) adult female albino Swiss mice were housed from weaning either in impoverished conditions or in enriched conditions, and tested for episodic-like and water maze spatial memories. After these behavioral tests, brain hippocampal sections were immunolabeled for glial fibrillary acid protein to identify astrocytes. The effects of environmental enrichment on episodic-like memory were not dependent on age, and may protect water maze spatial learning and memory from declines induced by aging or impoverished environment. In the dentate gyrus, the number of astrocytes increased with both aging and enriched environment in the molecular layer, increased only with aging in the polymorphic layer, and was unchanged in the granular layer. We suggest that long-term experience-induced glial plasticity by enriched environment may represent at least part of the circuitry groundwork for improvements in behavioral performance in the aged mice brain. [source] Environmental enrichment and prior experience of live prey improve foraging behaviour in hatchery-reared Atlantic salmonJOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY, Issue 2003C. Brown Atlantic salmon salmo salar L. parr were reared for 3 months under standard hatchery conditions or in a structurally enriched tank (containing plants, rocks and novel objects). Half of each of these fish had prior exposure to live prey in the form of live bloodworm while the other half were fed hatchery-pellets. After 12 days all fish were tested on a novel live prey item (brine shrimp). A significant interaction between the two factors (prior exposure to live prey and rearing condition) revealed that foraging performance was only enhanced in fish that had been reared in a complex environment and exposed to live prey. It appears that the ability to generalize from one live prey type to another is only enhanced in fish that had been reared in an enriched environment. The findings support the assertion that the provision of enriched environments in combination with exposure to live prey prior to release may significantly improve the post-release survival rates of hatchery-reared fishes. As both the environmental enrichment and the prior foraging experience procedures were comparatively simple, the provision of such pre-release experiences are likely to prove cost effective to hatcheries. [source] Effect of Environmental Enrichment on Stress Related Systems in RatsJOURNAL OF NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY, Issue 5 2004F. Moncek Abstract The aim of this study was to test whether environmental enrichment alters the status and responsiveness of pituitary-adrenocortical and sympathetic-adrenomedullary hormones in rats. Previous studies have shown that rats kept in an enriched environment differ from those kept in standard cages in dendritic branching, synaptogenesis, memory function, emotionality and behaviour. In male Wistar rats kept in an enriched environment for 40 days, we studied basal concentrations of hormones, endocrine responses to 5-HT1A challenge and responsiveness and adaptation to repeated handling. Environmental enrichment consisted of large plexiglass cages with 10 rats per cage, which contained variety of objects exchanged three times a week. Rats kept in this enriched environment had higher resting plasma concentrations of corticosterone, larger adrenals and increased corticosterone release to buspirone challenge compared to controls. Lower adrenocorticotropic hormone, corticosterone and adrenaline responses to handling were noticed in rats kept in an enriched environment. Exposure to repeated handling led to a more rapid extinction of corticosterone responses in rats kept in an enriched environment. Thus, environmental enrichment leads to pronounced changes in neuroendocrine regulation, including larger adrenals and increased adrenocortical function, which are so far considered to be indication of chronic stress. [source] Environmental enrichment stimulates progenitor cell proliferation in the amygdalaJOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 16 2009Hiroaki Okuda Abstract Enriched environments enhance hippocampal neurogenesis, synaptic efficacy, and learning and memory functions. Recent studies have demonstrated that enriched environments can restore learning behavior and long-term memory after significant brain atrophy and neural loss. Emotional and anxiety-related behaviors were also improved by enriched stimuli, but the effect of enriched environments on the amygdala, one of the major emotion-related structures in the central nervous system, remains largely unknown. In this study, we have focused on the effects of an enriched environment on cell proliferation and differentiation in the murine amygdala. The enriched environment increased bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive (newborn) cell numbers in the amygdala, almost all of which, immediately after a 1-week period of enrichment, expressed the oligodendrocyte progenitor marker Olig2. Furthermore, enriched stimuli significantly suppressed cell death in the amygdala. Some of the BrdU-positive cells in mice exposed to the enriched environment, but none in animals housed in the standard environment, later differentiated into astrocytes. Our findings, taken together with previous behavioral studies, suggest that progenitor proliferation and differentiation in the amygdala may contribute to the beneficial aspects of environmental enrichment such as anxiolytic effects. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Environmental enrichment reverses cognitive and molecular deficits induced by developmental lead exposureANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 1 2003Tomás R. Guilarte PhD Long-term deficits in cognitive function are the principal effects of lead (Pb2+) exposure in children and can be modeled in experimental animals. Current therapeutic approaches in the treatment of childhood Pb2+ intoxication are not effective in reversing learning deficits once they have occurred. We report that environmental enrichment reverses long-term deficits in spatial learning produced by developmental Pb2+ exposure in rats. Enhanced learning performance of Pb2+ -exposed animals reared in an enriched environment was associated with recovery of deficits in N- methyl- D -aspartate receptor subunit 1 (NR1) mRNA and induction of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA in the hippocampus. The effect of environmental enrichment on NR1 and BDNF gene expression was specific to Pb2+ -exposed animals and was present in the absence of changes in the NR2B subunit of the N- methyl- D -aspartate receptor, GluR1, ,CamKII, or PSD-95 gene expression measured in the same animals. Our findings demonstrate that the learning impairments and NR1 subunit mRNA deficits resulting from developmental Pb2+ exposure are reversible if the animals are provided with an enriched environment even after the exposure has occurred. We propose environmental enrichment as a basis for the treatment of childhood Pb2+ intoxication. [source] Observed increases in positive affect during behavioral treatmentBEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS, Issue 1 2003Lisa M. Toole A 15-year-old female diagnosed with mental retardation was admitted to an inpatient facility for the assessment and treatment of a severe behavior disorder. A behavioral treatment to reduce destructive behavior consisting of enriched environment, differential reinforcement, and time-out was evaluated in a reversal design. Data on affect were collected during baseline and treatment phases. In addition to achieving clinically significant reductions in problem behavior, collateral improvements in positive affect were observed during treatment phases. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Therapeutic effects of complex rearing or bFGF after perinatal frontal lesionsDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 2 2008Wendy Comeau Abstract We investigated the effects of an enriched environment and/or basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on recovery from neonatal frontal injury in rats. Rats received medial frontal lesions, or sham surgery, on postnatal day (P) 2/3. In the first set of experiments (Experiments 1 and 2), rats were housed in enriched environments that consisted of a large enclosure with multiple objects (or standard housing) for 90 days beginning at weaning (P22) or in adulthood (P110). In Experiment 3, the rats either received 7 days of subcutaneous bFGF beginning on the day after surgery or bFGF plus enriched housing beginning at weaning. After the 90-day housing period, the animals were tested on a spatial navigation task and a skilled reaching task. Early lesions of the medial frontal cortex caused severe impairments in spatial learning but this deficit was markedly reduced with enriched housing, bFGF, or a combination of both, with the latter being most effective. The housing effects varied with age, however: the earlier the experience began, the better the outcome. Enriched housing increased dendritic length in cortical pyramidal neurons, an effect that was greater in the lesion than the control animals, and enriched housing reversed the lesion-induced decrease in spine density. Enriched environment increased the thickness of the cortical mantle in both lesion and controls whereas bFGF had no effect. Experience thus can affect functional and anatomical outcome after early brain injury but the effects vary with age at experience and may be facilitated by treatment with bFGF. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 50: 134,146, 2008. [source] Environmental enrichment and prior experience of live prey improve foraging behaviour in hatchery-reared Atlantic salmonJOURNAL OF FISH BIOLOGY, Issue 2003C. Brown Atlantic salmon salmo salar L. parr were reared for 3 months under standard hatchery conditions or in a structurally enriched tank (containing plants, rocks and novel objects). Half of each of these fish had prior exposure to live prey in the form of live bloodworm while the other half were fed hatchery-pellets. After 12 days all fish were tested on a novel live prey item (brine shrimp). A significant interaction between the two factors (prior exposure to live prey and rearing condition) revealed that foraging performance was only enhanced in fish that had been reared in a complex environment and exposed to live prey. It appears that the ability to generalize from one live prey type to another is only enhanced in fish that had been reared in an enriched environment. The findings support the assertion that the provision of enriched environments in combination with exposure to live prey prior to release may significantly improve the post-release survival rates of hatchery-reared fishes. As both the environmental enrichment and the prior foraging experience procedures were comparatively simple, the provision of such pre-release experiences are likely to prove cost effective to hatcheries. [source] Environmental enrichment stimulates progenitor cell proliferation in the amygdalaJOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH, Issue 16 2009Hiroaki Okuda Abstract Enriched environments enhance hippocampal neurogenesis, synaptic efficacy, and learning and memory functions. Recent studies have demonstrated that enriched environments can restore learning behavior and long-term memory after significant brain atrophy and neural loss. Emotional and anxiety-related behaviors were also improved by enriched stimuli, but the effect of enriched environments on the amygdala, one of the major emotion-related structures in the central nervous system, remains largely unknown. In this study, we have focused on the effects of an enriched environment on cell proliferation and differentiation in the murine amygdala. The enriched environment increased bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive (newborn) cell numbers in the amygdala, almost all of which, immediately after a 1-week period of enrichment, expressed the oligodendrocyte progenitor marker Olig2. Furthermore, enriched stimuli significantly suppressed cell death in the amygdala. Some of the BrdU-positive cells in mice exposed to the enriched environment, but none in animals housed in the standard environment, later differentiated into astrocytes. Our findings, taken together with previous behavioral studies, suggest that progenitor proliferation and differentiation in the amygdala may contribute to the beneficial aspects of environmental enrichment such as anxiolytic effects. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||||||||