Cholinergic activity in rats following enriched stimulation and training: Direction and duration of effects.

Abstract

An investigation of the pattern and duration of changes in cholinesterase and aoetylcholinesterase activity indicated, first, a more rapid dissipation of these biochemical changes than of the improvements in behavior following both long-term and short-term stimulation enrichment and formal training. Second, following short-term stimulation compared with formal training similar enzyme changes were observed, in spite of performance differences suggesting learning or memory differences between these treatments. Third, the pattern of biochemical effects following developmental enrichment differed from that produced by short-term stimulation and training, although improved performance followed all treatments. The possible relevance of these findings for a postulated involvement of cholinergie activity in memory was considered.J This study was carried out under the supervision of M. G. King, Macquarie University, while the author was the holder of a Commonwealth of Australia postgraduate research studentship. The author wishes to thank M. G. King for his advice and guidance concerning both the research program and the manuscript, and W. J. Hensley, Department of Biochemistry, University of Sydney, for his advice and assistance concerning the biochemical analyses.2 Requests for reprints should be sent to Cathryn P. Brown,

Effects of rearing in different environments on subsequent environmental preference in rats

“…Although several experiments have shown that these effects hold on for several weeks or months depending on the duration of differential rearing and on the amplitude of the difference between rearing conditions (Bennett et al, 1974;Davenport, 1976;Davenport, Gonzales, Carey, Bishop, & Hagquist, 1976;Denenberg, Woodcock, & Rosenberg, 1968;Levitsky & Barnes, 1972;Ungerer, Pallaud, Ropartz, & Will, 1977), none has shown that they last for a whole lifetime and a few authors have even stressed the fact that the effects of differential rearing are only short-term effects (e.g. Brown, 1971). …”