Enriched environment restores impaired hippocampal long‐term potentiation and water maze performance induced by developmental lead exposure in rats

Abstract

Lead (Pb2+) exposure in children can induce long lasting deficits in cognitive function and has been modeled in experimental animals. Based on previous studies which demonstrated that learning impairments resulting from developmental Pb2+ exposure were reversible if the animals were provided with an enriched environment, here, we asked if environmental enrichment (EE) could also reverse long-term potential (LTP) impairment induced by lead. Rats drank 1,500 ppm lead acetate (PbAc) solution or distilled water throughout gestation and lactation. After weaning at postnatal Day 22, one half of the control and lead-exposed male offspring were given the environmental enrichment treatment through all the experiments until tested. Electrophysiological and Morris water maze test were performed at 8 weeks of age. The result showed that the impaired learning ability induced by lead could be reversed by EE. Furthermore, our results revealed that EPSP LTP and PS LTP impairments induced by lead were also reversible by EE experience.

Experimental Design Affects Social Behavior Outcomes in Adult Zebrafish Developmentally Exposed to Lead

“…In each experiment, an enriched environment reversed Pb 2 + -induced long-term potentiation impairment or spatial learning deficits. 9,32 The low correlation coefficients (Table 3) suggest that additional confounding factors were responsible for causing the observed variation in our data. First, individual position within the social hierarchy was not tracked.…”

“…A further complication, and one that is investigated in the studies described in this article, is the experimental apparatus used to elicit specific behavioral outcomes. It has been observed that environmental enrichment can mitigate the learning deficits caused by developmental Pb 2 + exposure, 32 suggesting that the design of the testing chamber or protocol may affect behavioral outcomes. From this perspective, mirrors have been used as means to stimulate social interactions in many vertebrate species, including fishes.…”

Enriched Environment Altered Aberrant Hippocampal Neurogenesis and Improved Long-Term Consequences After Temporal Lobe Epilepsy in Adult Rats

“…Considerable evidences had shown that EE treatment was beneficial for cognitive functions both in normal and pathological conditions (Cao et al 2008;Anastasia et al 2009;Hirata et al 2011;Simao et al 2012;Beauquis et al 2013;Doulames et al 2014;Piazza et al 2014). However, few studies addressed whether and how EE Xiaoqian Zhang and Tingting Liu contributed equally to this work.…”

A Case Study of Environmental Injustice: The Failure in Flint

“…Therefore, local efforts will be taken to counteract the negative consequences of exposure to lead for Flint’s children. Several recent publications support the positive effects that enriched home environments can have on cognition and behavior in both human and animal studies [74,75,76]. …”