Psychological stress and environmental adaptation in enriched vs. impoverished housed rats

Larsson, Fredrik; Winblad, Bengt; Mohammed, Abdul K.

doi:10.1016/s0091-3057(02)00782-7

Cited by 182 publications

(114 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…It is well established that optimal levels of corticosterone can enhance cognitive performance and that deviations above or below this level result in suboptimal cognitive performance (e.g. Larsson et al, 2002;Lupien and McEwen, 1997). Environmental enrichment and estrogen have independently been shown to increase corticosterone levels (Carey et al, 1995;Haemisch et al, 1994;Kempermann et al, 2002), and this may explain why these two factors individually enhanced memory in the present study.…”

Section: Estrogen-enrichment Interactionssupporting

confidence: 49%

Environmental enrichment reduces the mnemonic and neural benefits of estrogen

Gresack

Frick

2004

Neuroscience

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The degree to which memory is enhanced by estrogen replacement in postmenopausal women may depend on environmental factors such as education. The present study utilized an animal model of environmental enrichment to determine whether environmental factors influence the mnemonic and neural response to estrogen. Female mice were raised in standard (SC) or enriched (EC) conditions from weaning until adulthood (7 months). All mice were ovariectomized at 10 weeks, and tested in object recognition and water-escape motivated radial arm maze (WRAM) tasks at 6 months. Each day at the completion of training, mice received injections of 0.1 mg/kg cyclodextrin-encapsulated

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Section: Estrogen-enrichment Interactionssupporting

confidence: 49%

Environmental enrichment reduces the mnemonic and neural benefits of estrogen

Gresack

Frick

2004

Neuroscience

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“…It has been suggested that since the PFC and also the hippocampus exert a negative control on the release of corticosterone under stress conditions (Jacobson and Sapolsky 1991;Diorio et al 1993;Sullivan 2004;Herman et al 2005;Radley et al 2006), EC animals would show an enhanced expression of GRs in those brain areas, thus leading to a more effective corticosterone signal, which would drive a faster recovery of basal levels of corticosterone under stress conditions (Larsson et al 2002). In line with this hypothesis, EC rats showed a trend towards enhanced GR mRNA levels in the PFC.…”

Section: Acute Stress and Corticosterone In The Pfcmentioning

confidence: 86%

Differential effects of environmental enrichment and isolation housing on the hormonal and neurochemical responses to stress in the prefrontal cortex of the adult rat: relationship to working and emotional memories

et al. 2012

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The present study was designed to investigate the modulation of the stress responses by the environmental conditions and its putative neurobiological mechanisms. For that an integrative study on the effects of environmental enrichment and isolation housing on 1/ the corticosterone, dopamine and acetylcholine responses to acute restraint stress in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the awake rat; 2/ the mRNA levels of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the PFC; and 3/ the behavioral responses to stress, related to the PFC (habituation to a novel environment, spatial-working memory and inhibitory avoidance response) was performed. Male Wistar rats were maintained from 3 to 6 months of age in two different conditions: enriched (EC) or impoverished (IC). Animals were stereotaxically implanted with bilateral guide cannulae in the PFC to perform microdialysis experiments to evaluate the concentrations of corticosterone, dopamine and acetylcholine. EC animals showed lower increases of corticosterone and dopamine but not of acetylcholine than IC animals in the PFC in response to acute restraint stress (20min). In the PFC, GR mRNA levels showed a trend towards an enhancement in EC animals. EC reduced the days to learn the spatial working memory task (radial-water maze). Spatial working memory, however, was not different between groups in either basal or stress conditions. Inhibitory avoidance response was reduced in EC rats. The changes produced by EC in the neurochemical, neuroendocrine and behavioral parameters evaluated suggest that EC rats could show a better coping during an acute stress challenge.

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“…43 Regarding the anxiolytic effects of EE, it has been suggested that the EE-induced increase in glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus 44,45 could enhance glucocorticoid sensitivity leading to an increase in the negative feedback loop from the hippocampus to the hypothalamus, suppressing the release of CRF. 46 However, one study has examined the effect of EE on CRF gene expression in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus and found no significant effect. 37 In this study, we found that EE significantly reduced the CRFR1 mRNA expression in the BLA, suggesting a novel molecular mechanism that could explain the anxiolytic effect of EE.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The anxiolytic effect of environmental enrichment is mediated via amygdalar CRF receptor type 1

et al. 2010

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Environmental enrichment (EE) is known to have an anxiolytic effect in several animal models; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying these behavioral changes are not understood. In this study, we have shown that the anxiolytic effect of EE is associated with alterations in the corticotropin-releasing factor receptor type 1 (CRFR1) expression levels in the limbic system. We found that the decrease in anxiety-like behavior after housing in enriched conditions was associated with very low levels of CRFR1 mRNA expression in the basolateral amygdala of C57BL/6 mice. We further showed using a lentiviral-based system of RNA interference, that knockdown of CRFR1 mRNA expression in the basolateral amygdala induces a significant decrease in anxiety levels, similar to those achieved by EE nurture. Our data strongly suggest that reduced expression of CRFR1 mRNA levels in the basolateral amygdala mediates the effect of EE on anxiety-like behavior. Molecular Psychiatry (2010) 15, 905-917;

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Psychological stress and environmental adaptation in enriched vs. impoverished housed rats

Cited by 182 publications

References 56 publications

Environmental enrichment reduces the mnemonic and neural benefits of estrogen

Environmental enrichment reduces the mnemonic and neural benefits of estrogen

Differential effects of environmental enrichment and isolation housing on the hormonal and neurochemical responses to stress in the prefrontal cortex of the adult rat: relationship to working and emotional memories

The anxiolytic effect of environmental enrichment is mediated via amygdalar CRF receptor type 1

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