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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

Adulthood. --- Ampa receptors. --- Care. --- Cognitive function. --- Dentate gyrus. --- Development. --- Enrichment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Expression. --- Function. --- Hippocampal. --- Investment. --- Learning. --- Level. --- Life. --- Long-term potentiation. --- Long-term. --- Maternal care. --- Maternal investment. --- Maternal-care. --- Maternal. --- Maze learning. --- Memory. --- Mice. --- Morris water maze. --- Mother. --- Nmda receptor. --- Nursing. --- Object recognition. --- Object. --- Parental care,enriched,cognition,glutamate receptors. --- Plasticity. --- Potentiation. --- Prenatal stress. --- Rat hippocampus. --- Rat. --- Receptor antagonist. --- Receptor-binding. --- Receptor. --- Recognition. --- Responses. --- Spatial learning. --- Spatial.

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The mammalian brain has a high degree of plasticity, with dentate granule cell neurogenesis(1) and glial(2,3) proliferation stimulated by an enriched environment combining both complex inanimate and social stimulation. Moreover, rodents exposed to an enriched environment both before and after a cerebral insult show improved cognitive performance(1,4). One of the most robust associations of environmental enrichment is improved learning and memory in the Morris water maze, a spatial task that mainly involves the hippocampus(5). Furthermore, clinical evidence showing an association between higher educational attainment and reduced risk of Alzheimer(6) and Parkinson-related dementia(7) indicates that a stimulating environment has positive effects on cerebral health that may provide some resilience to cerebral insults. Here we show that in addition to its effects on neurogenesis, an enriched environment reduces spontaneous apoptotic cell death in the rat hippocampus by 45%. Moreover, these environmental conditions protect against kainate-induced seizures and excitotoxic injury. The enriched environment induces expression of glial-derived neurotrophic factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor and increases phosphorylation of the transcription factor cyclic-AMP response element binding protein, indicating that the; influence of the environment on spontaneous apoptosis and cerebral resistance to insults may be mediated through transcription factor activation and induction of growth factor expression

Activation. --- Adult-rat. --- Association. --- Brain. --- Cell-death. --- Death. --- Enriched environment. --- Enriched. --- Enrichment. --- Environment. --- Environmental enrichment. --- Expression. --- Fibroblast growth-factor. --- Generated granule cells. --- Growth. --- Health. --- Hippocampal-neurons. --- Hippocampus. --- Increase. --- Increases. --- Induction. --- Injuries. --- Injury. --- Learning. --- Memory. --- Morris water maze. --- Neurogenesis. --- Neurotrophic factor. --- Nmda receptor activation. --- Phosphorylation. --- Plasticity. --- Progenitor cells. --- Protein. --- Rat dentate gyrus. --- Rat hippocampus. --- Rat. --- Resistance. --- Response. --- Risk. --- Rodent. --- Rodents. --- Seizure. --- Seizures. --- Social. --- Spatial task. --- Spatial. --- Stimulation. --- Task. --- Transcription.