No abstract

Early-life experiences, including parental care, affect cognitive performance later in life. Being exposed to early-life maternal separation (MS) increases susceptibility to stress-related psychopathology. Previous studies suggest that MS could induce learning and memory impairments. Since enriched environment (EE) provides more opportunities for exploration and social interaction, in the present study we evaluated the effects of a short EE paradigm with a duration of 13 days on cognitive abilities of maternally separated rats (MS; 180 min/day, postnatal day (PND) 1-21) during adolescence in four experimental groups: Control, Control+EE, MS, and MS+EE.Plasma corticosterone (CORT) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels were also measured in experimental animals. We also studied the induction of longterm potentiation (LTP) in the slices of hippocampal CA1 area. The behavioral and electrophysiological assessments were started at PND 35. MS caused higher basal CORT levels in plasma and impaired spatial learning, memory, and social interaction.LTP induction was also impaired in MS rats and plasma BDNF levels were reduced in these animals. MS also induced more anxiety-like behavior. Short EE reduced plasma CORT levels had the potential to improve locomotor activity and anxiety-like behavior in MS+EE rats and reversed MS-induced impairments of spatial learning, memory, and social behavior. LTP induction and plasma BDNF levels were also enhanced in MS+EE rats. We concluded that short EE might be considered as a therapeutic strategy for promoting cognition.

Social interaction has a crucial role in human well-being, both mentally and physically. 1 Human social isolation (SI) happens when the social relationship between individuals become deficient. 2 Moreover, it mostly occurs when the number of individuals, who are members of social links, decrease, or the qualification of social relations, diminishes. During SI, people experience unpleasant situations mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. 3,4 Some conditions force individuals to leave human groups and reduce their socia9l interactions, presence in the population, and group activities. Being single, getting a divorce and separation may also result in isolation. 2,5 Further, weak connections and lack of social support have shown to be significant risk factors of isolation, which result in loneliness, stress, and committing suicide. 6,7 Meanwhile, some infectious diseases such as COVID-19, AIDS and some physical disorders have shown to develop SI in humans. 8,9 Also, some studies have confirmed impairment in sensory processing is significantly correlated with depression.Extreme sensory processing patterns make humans feel hopeless and depressed. 10,11 As previous scientific research has described the association between vision disabilities and hearing problems with isolation and reduced human relation. 12 Loneliness is considered as a risk factor for many psychiatric disorders such as adjustment disorder, chronic stress, insomnia and also late-life dementia 9 which may be long lasting. 13 Adverse effects on cognition and behaviour, decision-making, and pain perception are followed by social isolation. 14,15 SI has shown to change the immune system, glutamate system, and hormones. [15][16][17] Besides, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and developmental neurodegenerative diseases have occurred during SI. 15 It has been

The effects of disruption or alteration of early rearing experience and its negative effects on cognition and social behaviors have been studied in primates (Fleming et al., 2002). Early life adversity (ELA), as a potent developmental disruptor (Coley et al., 2019), has long-lasting effects on an individual's mental health (Xiong et al., 2015). ELA could alter physiology and behavior (Coley et al., 2019) and induces changes in DNA methylation, gene transcription, and stress hormone levels. Maternal separation (MS), a well-characterized model of ELA, may lead to behavioral deficits such as learning and memory problems (

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core symptoms including impairment in social communication and restrictive and repetitive behaviors and interests. Music has emerged in the past decade as an intervention therapy for children with ASD. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of music on cognition impairments in the valproic acid (VPA) rat model of autism. The VPA was administered for animal modeling of autism on embryonic day 12.5 (E12.5) (600 mg/kg). Male and female pups were sub divided into four main groups (Saline.Non‐music, VPA.Non‐music, Saline.Music, and VPA.Music). The rats in the music groups were exposed to Mozart's piano sonata K.448 for 30 days (4 h/day), from postnatal day (PND) 21 to 50. Autistic‐like behaviors were tested using a social interaction, the Morris water maze (MWM), and a passive avoidance tasks at the end of the PND 50. Our results demonstrated that VPA‐exposed rat pups had significantly lower sociability and social memory performance compared with the saline‐exposed rats in both sexes. VPA‐exposed rat pups exhibited learning and memory impairments in the MWM and passive avoidance tasks. Our results demonstrated that music improved sociability in VPA‐exposed rats, especially in males. Furthermore, our findings revealed that music improved learning impairments in VPA‐exposed male rats in MWM task. In addition, music improved spatial memory impairments in VPA‐exposed rats of both sexes. We also found that music improved passive avoidance memory impairments in VPA‐exposed rats of both sexes, especially in females. More investigation in future studies are needed.