Effects of environmental enrichment on cortical depth and morris-maze performance in B6D2F2 mice exposed prenatally to ethanol

Wainwright, P.E.; Lévesque, Sylvie; Krempulec, L.; Bulman-Fleming, B.; McCutcheon, D.

doi:10.1016/0892-0362(93)90040-u

Cited by 76 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…In our previous experiments we detected a small but significant difference in performance on the water maze task between controls and animals living in an enriched environment (Kempermann et al, 1997b(Kempermann et al, , 1998a, a finding that was in accordance with reports by other groups (Pacteau et al, 1989;Wainwright et al, 1993). The effect of environmental enrichment on learning of 129/SvJ mice was even clearer, with significant differences on the probe trial, indicating more specifically improvements in spatial learning (Kempermann et al, 1998a).…”

Section: Functional Contexts In Which Experience-dependent Regulationsupporting

confidence: 87%

Experience-dependent regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Effects of long-term stimulation and stimulus withdrawal

1999

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Section: Functional Contexts In Which Experience-dependent Regulationsupporting

confidence: 87%

Experience-dependent regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Effects of long-term stimulation and stimulus withdrawal

1999

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“…We and others have documented that rearing rats in an enriched environment after prenatal alcohol exposure can significantly improve behavioral performance, including learning, memory, and motor performance (Hannigan et al, 1993;Wainwright et al, 1993;Klintsova et al, 1998; but see Opitz et al, 1997). In our first studies, Long-Evans rats were exposed prenatally to either 6 kg/day alcohol or sucrose vehicle from GD8-19, using an intragastric gavage technique.…”

Section: Morris Maze Learning After Environmental Enrichmentmentioning

confidence: 97%

Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the hippocampus: Spatial behavior, electrophysiology, and neuroanatomy

2000

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Prenatal exposure to alcohol can result in fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), characterized by growth retardation, facial dysmorphologies, and a host of neurobehavioral impairments. Neurobehavioral effects in FAS, and in alcohol‐related neurodevelopmental disorder, include poor learning and memory, attentional deficits, and motor dysfunction. Many of these behavioral deficits can be modeled in rodents. This paper reviews the literature suggesting that many fetal alcohol effects result, at least in part, from teratogenic effects of alcohol on the hippocampus. Neurobehavioral studies show that animals exposed prenatally to alcohol are impaired in many of the same spatial learning and memory tasks sensitive to hippocampal damage, including T‐mazes, the Morris water maze, and the radial arm maze. Direct evidence for hippocampal involvement is provided by neuroanatomical studies of the hippocampus documenting reduced numbers of neurons, lower dendritic spine density on pyramidal neurons, and decreased morphological plasticity after environmental enrichment in rats exposed prenatally to alcohol. Electrophysiological studies also demonstrate changes in synaptic activity in in vitro hippocampal brain slices isolated from prenatal alcohol‐exposed animals. Considered together, these observations demonstrate that prenatal exposure to alcohol can result in abnormal hippocampal development and function. Such studies provide a better understanding of neurological deficits associated with FAS in humans, and may also contribute to the development of strategies to ameliorate the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on behavior. Hippocampus 2000;10:94–110. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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“…The increase in optimism was observed in both cNLH and cLH rats, but only with respect to one latency measure. Environmental enrichment has been demonstrated to exert robust improvements on cognition such as spatial learning and memory (Rampon et al, 2000;van Praag et al, 2000;Wainwright, Lévesque, Krempulec, Bulman-Fleming, & McCutcheon, 1993;Winocur, 1998). An effect of enrichment on latencies to "choose" but not to "reach" corroborates this evidence further, since "choosing" is a behavioral parameter supposed to possess a stronger cognitive component than the incentive-rooted "reach."…”

Section: Enrichment Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A glass full of optimism: Enrichment effects on cognitive bias in a rat model of depression

Richter

Schick

Hoyer

et al. 2012

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

111

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Investigations of cognitive biases in animals are conceptually and translationally valuable because they contribute to animal welfare research and help to extend and refine our understanding of human emotional disorders, where biased information processing is a critical causal and maintenance factor. We employed the "learned helplessness" genetic rat model of depression in studying cognitive bias and its modification by environmental manipulations. Using a spatial judgment task, responses to ambiguous spatial cues were assessed before and after environmental enrichment to test whether this manipulation would cause an optimistic shift in emotional state. Twenty-four congenitally helpless and nonhelpless male rats were trained to discriminate two different locations, "rewarded" versus "aversive." After successful acquisition of this spatial discrimination, cognitive bias was probed by measuring responses to three ambiguous locations. Latencies to "reach" and to actively "choose" a goal pot were recorded alongside exploratory behaviors. An overall strain difference was observed, with helpless rats displaying longer "reach" latencies than nonhelpless rats. This implies a "pessimistic" response bias in helpless rats, underscoring their depressive-like phenotype. No strain differences were observed regarding other behavioral measures. Half of the animals were then transferred to enriched cages and retested. Environmental enrichment resulted in reduced "choose" latencies in both rat strains, associating enrichment with more optimistic interpretations of ambiguous cues. Our results emphasize the suitability of cognitive bias measurement for animal emotion assessment. They extend the methodological repertoire for characterizing complex phenotypes and bear implications for animal welfare research and for the use of animal models in preclinical research.

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Effects of environmental enrichment on cortical depth and morris-maze performance in B6D2F2 mice exposed prenatally to ethanol

Cited by 76 publications

References 47 publications

Experience-dependent regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Effects of long-term stimulation and stimulus withdrawal

Experience-dependent regulation of adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Effects of long-term stimulation and stimulus withdrawal

Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the hippocampus: Spatial behavior, electrophysiology, and neuroanatomy

A glass full of optimism: Enrichment effects on cognitive bias in a rat model of depression

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