Possible memory storage differences among mice reared in environments varying in complexity

Greenough, William T.; Wood, William E.; Madden, Thomas C.

doi:10.1016/s0091-6773(72)80078-6

Cited by 53 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In the majority of these studies, the mice were housed in standard housing conditions, and different groups were tested at different ages. Several studies have reported that, in both rats and mice, previous learning or environmental enrichment enhances performance on cognitive tasks and alters hippocampal morphology (Greenough et al, 1972(Greenough et al, , 1979Janus et al, 2000;Churchill et al, 2002;Fillit et al, 2002). More importantly, in relation to the present study, recent findings indicate that continual environmental enrichment from 2 to 6 months of age improves memory in female APP or APP/ presenilin 1 (PS1) transgenic mice and that this improvement occurs despite significant increases in steady-state A␤ levels (Jankowsky et al, 2003(Jankowsky et al, , 2005.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Importantly, findings of animal studies indicate that increasing the complexity of an environment can protect against neurodegeneration. Both environmental enrichment and extensive exercise, distinct methodologically from the paradigm used here, have been shown to increase dendritic branching, neurogenesis, and the number of synapses in brain regions involved in learning and memory (Greenough et al, 1972(Greenough et al, , 1979Greer et al, 1982;Comery et al, 1996;Biernaskie and Corbett, 2001;van Praag et al, 2005). The precise mechanisms underlying this increased plasticity may include a wide variety of neuroprotective factors, including increases in neurotrophic factors such as BDNF (Falkenberg et al, 1992;Zhao et al, 2001;Alonso et al, 2002;Pham et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Learning Decreases Aβ*56 and Tau Pathology and Ameliorates Behavioral Decline in 3xTg-AD Mice

Billings¹,

Green²,

McGaugh³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

126

101

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Transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's disease (AD), such as the 3xTg-AD mice, are instrumental for elucidating genetic, pharmacologic, environmental, and behavioral factors that affect the cognitive phenotype. Here we present the novel findings that longitudinal water-maze spatial training produces a significant, albeit transient, improvement in subsequent learning performance and reduces amyloid ␤ (A␤) and tau neuropathology. The 3xTg-AD mice were trained and tested at 3 month intervals from 2 to 18 months. Separate groups of naive mice were also tested at each age. The improvement in performance seen at 6 and 12 months is dependent on spatial training, because animals that were similarly handled and exposed to swimming without a learning contingency failed to show improved performance. Training before the development of overt neuropathology is required for full expression of the training effect because we found it delays A␤ redistribution to extracellular plaques and reduces A␤ oligomers associated with cognitive decline. In addition, learning leads to decreased glycogen synthase kinase-3␤ activity, which likely underlies the reduced tau pathology. The previous training effects on both maze performance and neuropathology are attenuated at 15 and 18 months. These findings indicate that, in young and middle-aged 3xTg-AD mice, repeated spatial training can significantly delay the development of neuropathology and decline in spatial memory.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Learning Decreases Aβ*56 and Tau Pathology and Ameliorates Behavioral Decline in 3xTg-AD Mice

Billings¹,

Green²,

McGaugh³

et al. 2007

J. Neurosci.

126

101

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…This pioneering observation generated a large number of studies, which have shown significant differences in animals' behavior associated with enriched living conditions. Environmental enrichment in rats leads to better performance in various learning tasks (eg Greenough et al, 1972;Mohammed et al, 1990;Nilsson et al, 1999;Rampon et al, 2000), enhanced social play behavior (Morley-Fletcher et al, 2003), increased exploration, lower anxiety, and ameliorated plasma corticosterone response to stress (Levine, 1962(Levine, , 1967. Experiments have shown that improvements in behavioral performances were accompanied with changes in various neurochemical and anatomical features in rat brains.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Enrichment Reverses Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Issues for a Therapeutic Approach in Autism

Schneider

Turczak

Przewłocki

2005

Neuropsychopharmacol

255

155

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Environmental enrichment has been repeatedly shown to affect multiple aspects of brain function, and is known to improve cognitive, behavioral, and histopathological outcome after brain injuries. The purpose of the present experiments was to determine the effect of an enriched environment on behavioral aberrations observed in male rats exposed to valproic acid on day 12.5 of gestation (VPA rats), and proposed on the basis of etiological, anatomical, and behavioral data as an animal model of autism. Environmental enrichment reversed almost all behavioral alterations observed in the model. VPA rats after environmental enrichment (VPA-E) compared to VPA rats reared in standard conditions have higher sensitivity to pain and lower sensitivity to nonpainful stimuli; stronger acoustic prepulse inhibition; lower locomotor, repetitive/stereotypic-like activity, and enhanced exploratory activity; decreased anxiety; increased number of social behaviors; and shorter latency to social explorations. In comparison with control animals (Con), VPA-E rats exhibited increased number of pinnings in adolescence and social explorations in adulthood, and were less anxious in the elevated plus maze. Similar differences in social behavior and anxiety were observed between control rats exposed to environmental enrichment (Con-E) and control group reared in standard conditions. These results suggest that postnatal environmental manipulations can counteract the behavioral alterations in VPA rats. We propose environmental enrichment as an important tool for the treatment of autism spectrum disorders.

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“…Among rats raised from weaning in an enriched environment, numerous neocortical alterations have been observed including increased cortical thickness, dendritic spines and branching, synaptic contacts and transmission, and neuron size (e.g., Diamond et al 1964;Diamond 1967;Globus et al 1973;Greenough et al , 1978Green and Greenough 1986; for review, see Rosenzweig and Bennett 1996). Furthermore, enriched rats exhibit enhanced learning and memory abilities relative to isolated littermates, suggesting a functional role for the cortical alterations (Brown 1968;Greenough et al 1972;Tees 1999;Woodcock and Richardson 2000). More recent work in adult rodents indicates that enrichment initiated at nearly any point in the lifespan can improve spatial and nonspatial memory (Nilsson et al 1999;Rampon et al 2000;Duffy et al 2001;Tang et al 2001;Williams et al 2001), and enhance several aspects of hippocampal functioning such as long-term potentiation (Duffy et al 2001), neurogenesis (Kempermann et al 1997;Nilsson et al 1999), dendritic spine growth (Rampon et al 2000), and neurotrophin mRNA expression (Torasdotter et al 1996(Torasdotter et al , 1998.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Spatial Memory and Neurochemistry in Middle-Aged Mice

Frick¹,

Stearns²,

Pan³

et al. 2003

Learn. Mem.

150

100

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The present study compared the effects of environmental enrichment on spatial memory, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) activity, and synaptophysin levels in middle-aged male and female mice. Prior to testing, a subset of 18-month-old male and female C57BL/6 mice was housed with two to three toys and a running wheel in the home cage for up to 29 d. Adult mice (7 mo) of both sexes and the remaining middle-aged mice were group (social) housed, but not exposed to enriching objects. After the enrichment period, all mice were tested in a 1-day version of the Morris water maze, in which both spatial and nonspatial memory were assessed. Immediately after testing, the hippocampus and frontoparietal cortex were dissected, and GAD activity and synaptophysin levels were measured. Environmental enrichment reduced the age-related impairment in spatial acquisition and retention; relative to adult social controls, middle-aged enriched mice were unimpaired, whereas middle-aged social controls were impaired. This reduction was similar in middle-aged males and females. Enrichment did not affect cued memory in either sex. Although hippocampal GAD activity was increased by enrichment in males, all other neurochemical measurements were unaffected by enrichment or aging in either sex. These data suggest that environmental enrichment initiated at middle age can reduce age-related impairments in spatial memory in males and females, although the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this effect remain unknown.

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Possible memory storage differences among mice reared in environments varying in complexity

Cited by 53 publications

References 13 publications

Learning Decreases Aβ*56 and Tau Pathology and Ameliorates Behavioral Decline in 3xTg-AD Mice

Learning Decreases Aβ*56 and Tau Pathology and Ameliorates Behavioral Decline in 3xTg-AD Mice

Environmental Enrichment Reverses Behavioral Alterations in Rats Prenatally Exposed to Valproic Acid: Issues for a Therapeutic Approach in Autism

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Spatial Memory and Neurochemistry in Middle-Aged Mice

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