Effects of pre‐ and postnatal stimulation on developmental, emotional, and cognitive aspects in rodents: A review

Chapillon, Pierre; Patin, V; Roy, Vincent; Vincent, A; Caston, J.

doi:10.1002/dev.10066

Cited by 181 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 132 publications

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“…A large number of studies highlighted the fact that EE modifies the behaviour of animals, leading to a sensitive improvement in complex cognitive functions, particularly learning and memory, 19 and positively affecting the animal's emotional and stress reactivity. 20 Rodents living in EE conditions display increased levels of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), a physiological model of synaptic plasticity related to learning and memory. 21 This functional improvement is accompanied by prominent changes at the anatomical level, with robust increments in cortical thickness and weight and modifications of neuronal morphology, in terms of increased dendritic arborization, number of dendritic spines, synaptic density and postsynaptic thickening, occurring in several regions of the brain, particularly in the occipital cortex and hippocampus.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment

et al. 2009

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Environmental enrichment (EE) is known to profoundly affect the central nervous system (CNS) at the functional, anatomical and molecular level, both during the critical period and during adulthood. Recent studies focusing on the visual system have shown that these effects are associated with the recruitment of previously unsuspected neural plasticity processes. At early stages of brain development, EE triggers a marked acceleration in the maturation of the visual system, with maternal behaviour acting as a fundamental mediator of the enriched experience in both the foetus and the newborn. In adult brain, EE enhances plasticity in the cerebral cortex, allowing the recovery of visual functions in amblyopic animals. The molecular substrate of the effects of EE on brain plasticity is multi-factorial, with reduced intracerebral inhibition, enhanced neurotrophin expression and epigenetic changes at the level of chromatin structure. These findings shed new light on the potential of EE as a non-invasive strategy to ameliorate deficits in the development of the CNS and to treat neurological disorders.

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confidence: 99%

Nurturing brain plasticity: impact of environmental enrichment

et al. 2009

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“…Various postpartum circumstances, such as physical stress, diseases, naturally occurring variations in maternal behaviour i.e., licking, grooming and nursing, and experimentally neonatal handling (short but repeated daily sessions of separation from the mother) can all contribute to altered neurological development (Chapillon et al, 2002) and are important factors in the HPA--axis stress response in rodents. Among the first to demonstrate this was Levine et al (1967), who showed that neonatal handled rats were less reactive, more explorative and more emotionally stable as adult compared with controls and that these early separated animals showed a lower plasma corticosterone levels over time compared with non--handled animals.…”

Section: Postnatal Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Early Experience, Maternal Care and Behavioural Test Design : Effects on the Temperament of Military Working Dogs

Foyer

2015

Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Dissertations

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Domestication has resulted in animals with broad variations between as well as within breeds, which allows for the selection and breeding of animals for preferred traits. This selection has affected both the genotypes and phenotypes of animals. In dogs, it has allowed for breeding for different purposes, such as companionship or the performance of specific tasks, e.g., herding, hunting, searching and protecting. Each of these types of working dogs has specific traits that are, in part, controlled by genes; however, genes are not solely responsible for the variations in the traits of an individual. The environment also plays a role, which has been studied in rodents and primates in recent decades. For instance, it has been shown that the amount of maternal care that a rat receives as a pup affects its temperament later in life; the more maternal care, i.e., licking, grooming and arched--back nursing (LG--ABN) that a rat receives, the more stress resistant, less reactive and more explorative it will be as an adult. However, the question is whether this is also true for dogs, and the investigation of how temperament in dogs is affected by environmental factors early in life is the main objective of this thesis. Three of the studies presented in this thesis focused on investigating the general parameters, particularly maternal care, that influences offspring behaviour to contribute to the understanding of temperament development in military working dogs. One of these studies concentrated on the environmental factors that influence dogs early in life, and the results indicated that some factors, such as parity, litter size and birth season, affect temperament later in life. Another study investigated how females take care of their young, and the results demonstrated that females vary in their maternal style during the first three weeks postpartum and that this variation affects the temperament of the offspring. The third study focused on factors in the home environment, and the results showed that dogs approved through the evaluative temperament test were significantly associated with being hyperactive or restless and having difficulty settling down in the home environment. However, those dogs were also left home alone for more hours in a day than non--approved dogs. To be able to operate functionally, a military working dog needs to possess certain traits, or a certain temperament, and a vital characteristic is the way it responds to and copes with stress. This was investigated during an evaluative temperament test used to select dogs suitable for further training. Surprisingly, the results in the fourth study showed that the dogs approved for further training had significantly higher levels of salivary cortisol both before and after the test compared with the non--approved dogs. These findings may be of profound importance for understanding individual variations in behaviour and improving breeding schemes for working dogs. POPULÄRVETENSKAPLIG SAMMANFATTNINGFör över 15 000 år sedan började våra anfäder avla ...

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“…This last effect is related to a robust facilitation of hippocampal LTP, a widely accepted synaptic plasticity model of learning and memory [38] and linked with general signs of "cellular health" in the hippocampus, such as increased levels of synaptophysin [39,40], a glycoprotein found in membranes of neurotransmitter-containing presynaptic vesicles, a reduced load of lipofuscin deposits [41], which are good indicators of chronic oxidative stress [42], and the pronounced induction of hippocampal neurogenesis [41]. EE positively affects also emotional and stress reactivity, both in normal animals and in strains of mice considered pathologically anxious [43]. Interestingly, the effects of EE are not restricted to the cerebral cortex, as demonstrated by a recent work in which this paradigm has been used to investigate the effects of lifestyle change on metabolic parameters [44].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%