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Article
Post-weaning social isolation of rats leads to a diminution of LTP in the CA1 to subiculum pathway.
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Year: 2003

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Abstract

Post-weaning social isolation of rats produces psychological and physiological changes that are relevant to schizophrenia. Here, we report that long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CA1 to subiculum pathway is lower by 34%, (P<0.0001) in brain slices from isolates compared with those from socially housed rats. We also report that LTP in this pathway is NMDA receptor-dependent. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved


Article
Partial reversal of the effect of maternal care on cognitive function through environmental enrichment.

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Maternal care influences hippocampal development in the rat. The offspring of mothers that exhibit increased levels of pup licking/grooming and arched-back nursing (High LG-ABN mothers) show increased hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor binding and enhanced hippocampal-dependent spatial learning. In these studies we examined whether environmental enrichment from days 22-70 of life might reverse the effects of low maternal care. Environmental enrichment eliminated the differences between the offspring of High and Low LG-ABN mothers in both Morris water maze learning and object recognition. However, enrichment did not reverse the effect of maternal care on long-term potentiation in the dentate gyrus or on hippocampal NMDA receptor binding. In contrast, peripubertal enrichment did reverse the effects of maternal care on hippocampal a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid receptor binding. These findings provide evidence for the reversal of the effects of reduced maternal investment in early life on cognitive function in adulthood. Such effects might involve compensatory changes associated with peripubertal enrichment. (C) 2003 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved


Article
Peripubertal environmental enrichment reverses the effects of maternal care on hippocampal development and glutamate receptor subunit expression.

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Maternal care in the rat influences the development of cognitive function in the offspring through neural systems known to mediate activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. The offspring of mothers that exhibit increased levels of pup licking/grooming (high-LG mothers) show increased hippocampal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subunit mRNA expression, enhanced synaptogenesis and improved hippocampal-dependent spatial learning in comparison with animals reared by low-LG mothers. The effects of reduced maternal care on cognitive function are reversed with peripubertal environmental enrichment; however, the neural mechanisms mediating this effect are not known. In these studies we exposed the offspring of high- and low-LG mothers to environmental enrichment from days 22 to 70 of life, and measured the expression of genes encoding for glutamate receptor subunits and synaptophysin expression as a measure of synaptic density. Environmental enrichment reversed the effects of maternal care on synaptic density and this effect was, in turn, associated with a reversal of the effect of maternal care on the NR2A and NR2B subunits of the NMDA receptor, as well as effects on (RS)-alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor subunits. Finally, direct infusion of an NR2B-specific NMIDA receptor antagonist into the hippocampus eliminated the effects of maternal care on spatial learning/memory in the Morris water maze. These findings suggest that: (1) the effects of maternal care are mediated by changes in NR2B gene expression; and (2) that environmental enrichment reverses the effects of reduced maternal care through the same genomic target, the NR2B gene, and possibly effects on other subunits of the NMIDA and AMPA receptors


Article
Enriched environment and acceleration of visual system development.

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Rearing mice from birth in an enriched environment leads to a conspicuous acceleration of visual system development appreciable at behavioral, electrophysiological and molecular level. Little is known about the possible mechanisms of action through which enriched environment affects visual system development. It has been suggested that differences in maternal behavior between enriched and non-enriched conditions could contribute to the earliest effects of enriched environment on visual development and that neurotrophins, BDNF in particular, might be involved. Here, we examined Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels in the visual cortex during development and showed that an increase occurs in the first week of life in enriched pups compared to standard reared pups; BDNF levels at birth were equal in the two groups. This suggests a postnatal rather than a prenatal effect of environment on BDNF. A detailed analysis of maternal care behavior showed that pups raised in a Condition of social and physical enrichment experienced higher levels of licking behavior and physical contact compared to standard reared pups and that enhanced levels of licking were also provided to pups in an enriched environment where no adult females other than the mother were present. Thus, different levels of maternal care in different environmental conditions could act as indirect mediator for the earliest effects of enrichment on Visual system development. Some of the effects of different levels of maternal care on the offspring behavior are long lasting. We measured the visual acuity of differentially reared mice at the end of the period Of Visual acuity development (postnatal day 45) and at 12 months of age, using a behavioral discrimination task. We found better learning abilities and higher visual acuity in enriched compared to standard reared mice at both ages. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

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