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Adult rats. --- Adult-rat. --- Adult-rats. --- Adult. --- Brain infarct. --- Brain. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Environment. --- Infarct. --- Psychochirurgie. --- Rat. --- Rats.

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Cognitive function as measured by the Hebb-Williams maze task was examined in Fischer 344 male rats that had been exposed to an enriched environment for periods of variable duration and at different starting ages. In one experiment, rats were exposed to environmental enrichment from weaning until the age of 2.5, 15, or 25 months. The results of 12 problems of the Hebb-Williams maze task showed that the enriched rearing condition improved the learning ability in all the age groups; however, factor analysis and ANOVA demonstrated that four of the 12 maze problems were not suitable for detecting the effect of age under different environmental conditions. Reanalysis of the results obtained with the other eight maze problems more clearly revealed both the effects of rearing condition and aging. The latter analysis demonstrated that the learning rate of rats reared under enriched conditions was faster than that of rats reared under standard social conditions. Short-term (3-month) exposure also had positive effects on cognitive function in both adult (11-month-old) and aged (22-month-old) animals. The effect of long-term exposure to an enriched environment starting at weaning was much greater than that of short-term exposure in aged. rats, whereas the effects of both long-term and short-term exposure were almost the same in adult rats. These results show that aged animals still have appreciable plasticity in cognitive function, and suggest that environmental stimulation could benefit aging humans as well. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Ability. --- Adult rats. --- Adult-rat. --- Adult-rats. --- Adult. --- Age. --- Aging,enriched environment,hebb-williams maze task,learning and memory,brain plasticity. --- Aging. --- Analysis. --- Animal. --- Animals. --- Cerebral-cortex. --- Cognitive function. --- Dentate gyrus. --- Duration. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Environments. --- Experience. --- Experiment. --- Exposure. --- Function. --- Group. --- Human. --- Humans. --- Learning ability. --- Learning-ability. --- Learning. --- Long-term. --- Male rat. --- Male-rats. --- Male. --- Neurogenesis. --- Old rats. --- Performance. --- Periods. --- Plasticity. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Rearing. --- Social. --- Spatial memory. --- Starting. --- Stimulation. --- Synapses. --- Task. --- Time. --- Weaning. --- Young.

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Abstract Cognitive impairment is common after ischemic stroke. In rodent stroke models using occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) this is reflected by impaired spatial memory associated with the size of the ischemic lesion. Housing in an enriched environment enhances brain plasticity and improves recovery of sensorimotor functions after experimental stroke in rats. In this study we report that postischemic housing in an enriched environment also attenuates the long-term spatial memory impairment after MCA occlusion and extinguishes the association between spatial memory and infarct volume. An enriched environment did not significantly alter the expression of selected neuronal plasticity-associated genes 1month after MCA occlusion, indicating that most of the adaptive changes induced by an enriched environment have already occurred at this time point. We conclude that the attenuated memory impairment induced by environmental enrichment after MCA occlusion provides a useful model for further studies on the neurobiological mechanisms of recovery of cognitive functions after ischemic stroke

Association. --- Brain. --- Cerebral ischemia. --- Cerebral-ischemia. --- Cognitive function. --- Cognitive impairment. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Expression. --- Function. --- Gene. --- Genes. --- Housing. --- Infarct. --- Ischemia. --- Ischemic stroke. --- Learning. --- Lesion. --- Long-term. --- Mechanisms. --- Memory. --- Model. --- Models. --- Morris water maze. --- Neuronal. --- Plasticity. --- Rat. --- Rats. --- Recovery. --- Rodent. --- Size. --- Spatial memory. --- Spatial. --- Stroke. --- Time.

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This study examined the effects of enriching the environment on the learning abilities of growing pigs. Eighty-four pigs were housed in either barren or enriched environments from birth to 14 weeks. The barren environments were defined as intensive housing and the enriched environments incorporated extra space, including areas which contained peat and straw in a rack. The learning abilities of pigs from both environments were tested at 15-17 weeks using an operant task which involved pigs learning to push a panel for a reward and a maze test which involved spatial learning. Pigs from enriched environments learned both the operant task and the maze task more rapidly than their counterparts from barren environments. These results suggest that the cognitive development of pigs may be impaired in intensive housing systems

Ability. --- Animal welfare,environmental enrichment,learning,pigs. --- Animals. --- Area. --- Behavior. --- Birth. --- Brain. --- Development. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Environments. --- Experience. --- Growing pigs. --- Growing-pigs. --- Housing system. --- Housing. --- Increases. --- Learning ability. --- Learning-ability. --- Learning. --- Performance. --- Pig. --- Pigs. --- Rats. --- Reward. --- Space. --- Spatial learning. --- Spatial. --- Stimulation. --- Straw. --- System. --- Systems. --- Task. --- Test. --- Welfare.

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The importance of environment in the regulation of brain, behaviour and physiology has long been recognized in biological, social and medical sciences. Animals maintained under enriched conditions have clearly been shown to have better learning abilities than those maintained under standard conditions. However, the effects of environmental enrichment (EE) on immunity and emotionality have been less documented and remain questionable. Therefore, we investigated the effect of EE on natural killer (NK) cell activity, psychological stress responses and behavioural parameters. Male C3H mice were housed either in enriched or standard conditions for 6 weeks. Behaviour was then examined by the grip-strength test, staircase and elevated plus maze, and corticosterone levels and NK cell activity were measured. Furthermore, animals exposed to the stress paradigm, achieved by electric shock with reminders, were tested for freezing time in each reminder. Corticosterone levels were also measured. The EE mice showed decreased anxiety-like behaviour and higher activity compared to standard mice, as revealed by a greater percentage of time spent in the open arms of the elevated plus maze, and a higher rate of climbing the staircase. A shorter freezing time in the stress paradigm and no corticosterone level reactivity were measured in EE mice. In addition, NK cell activity in spleens of EE mice was higher than that demonstrated in those of standard mice. Thus, EE has a beneficial effect on anxiety-like behaviour, stress response and NK cell activity. The effect on NK cell activity is promising, due to the role of NK cells in host resistance

Ability. --- Activity. --- Animal-model. --- Animal. --- Animals. --- Anxiety. --- Behaviour. --- Brain. --- Children. --- Corticosterone levels. --- Corticosterone. --- Different strains. --- Electric shock. --- Elevated plus maze. --- Emotionality. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Exercise. --- Grip-strength test. --- Human. --- Immune-system. --- Immunity. --- Learning ability. --- Learning-ability. --- Learning. --- Level. --- Male. --- Mechanisms. --- Mice. --- Mouse. --- Natural killer cell. --- Natural. --- Nk. --- Parameters. --- Physiology. --- Psychological stress. --- Rats. --- Reactivity. --- Regulation. --- Resistance. --- Response. --- Responses. --- Shock. --- Social. --- Staircase. --- Stimulation. --- Stress response. --- Stress-response. --- Stress. --- Test. --- Time.