The effect of environmental stimulation on brain weight in previously undernourished rats

Katz, Hillary B.; Davies, Christopher; Dobbing, John

doi:10.1016/0166-4328(80)90040-6

Cited by 15 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…As in some early experiments in which differential housing had been shown to influence gross neuroanatomical measures following various cortical lesions and following malnutrition (e.g. 48,76,93,94) several authors have reported such effects on brain weight and size or on cortical thickness. Rosenzweig 75 found that enriched experience increases the weight of residual cortex after various bilateral cortical lesions but, contrary to earlier speculation 94 , he found no experiential effect on remote cell loss observed during the month or more following the lesions.…”

Section: Environmentally-induced Brain Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Enriched housing has also been shown to alter gross measures of brain morphology in noradrenaline-depleted rats 63 , in malnourished rats (e.g. 9,46,47,48) and vasopressin deficient rats of the mutant Brattleboro strain34, 35. However, other researchers using adult hemidecorticate rats 86 , prenatally X-irradiated microcephalic rats SO , noradrenaline-depleted rats 8 , 65, or malnourished rats 15 have failed to observe any influence of differential housing on gross neuroanatomy, although most of them found housing effects on behavior in brain-damaged animals or on neuroanatomical measures in intact control animals. The gross measures considered were possibly too gross to reveal subtle changes accompanying functional modifications.…”

Section: Environmentally-induced Brain Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Approaches to Recovery of Function from Brain Damage: A Review of Animal Studies (1981 to 1991)

Will

Kelche

1992

Recovery From Brain Damage

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Section: Environmentally-induced Brain Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Environmentally-induced Brain Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Approaches to Recovery of Function from Brain Damage: A Review of Animal Studies (1981 to 1991)

Will

Kelche

1992

Recovery From Brain Damage

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“…Many investigators have thought a great deal about the influence of the degree of impoverishment or enrichment of the emotional and psychological environment, in early childhood, which is likely to be a large influence on later achievement. Animal experiments which have shown that enrichment or impoverishment interacts with poor or satisfactory nutrition, either synergistically or by compensation to produce morphological changes in the brain (Katz et al 1980(Katz et al , 1982, 1984, have sometimes been criticized (Bedi & Bhide, 1988). Functionally, however, the idea has a ring of truth, judged by several observations in humans.…”

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confidence: 99%

Early nutrition and later achievement

Dobbing

1990

Proc. Nutr. Soc.

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The effects of environmental diversity on well‐fed and previously undernourished rats: I. Body and brain measurements

Bhide¹,

Bedi²

1982

J of Comparative Neurology

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Rats were undernourished from the 16th day of gestation to 25 postnatal days of age and then weaned on to an ad libitum diet. Around 35 days of age, 12 previously undernourished (PU) male pups were assigned to an "enriched environmental condition" (EC) and 12 to an "isolated environmental condition" (IC). Well-fed controls were similarly assigned. After 30 days in these conditions all rats were killed by perfusion with fixative.Body and "forebrain" weights, and forebrain lengths and widths, were determined for each animal. The forebrains were subsequently embedded in paraffin wax and serially sectioned. Ten sections, identified by subcortical landmarks, were taken from each brain and used for cortical depth measurements. The whole experiment was carried out on two separate occasions.In both the well-fed and PU groups the EC rats were between 3% and 9% lighter in body weight and between 4% and 9% heavier in "forebrain" weight than IC animals. A two-way analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) indicated significant effects of nutrition and environment on body and forebrain weights but no significant interaction. Nutrition, but not environment, also had significant effects on "forebrain" width and length measurements.For the well-fed groups, only one section out of all those measured from the two experimental series showed a significant effect of environment on the cortical depth measurements.For the PU groups, in experiment one the cortical thickness of the EC rats was significantly greater than their IC counterparts in four out of the ten sections analyzed. In the second experiment only two sections exhibited significant results. In contrast to experiment one, these showed that the IC rats had a slightly but significantly thicker cortex than the EC rats. A twoway ANOVA of the data on cortical depths showed no significant effects of, or interaction between, nutrition and environment.These observations are discussed in the context of previously published results on the effects of a differential environment on body and brain measurements.The developing brain may be influenced by a host of nongenetic factors. Some of these may have deleterious effects; others may be beneficial. One of the most important and well-studied factors which has a harmful effect on the developing brain is undernutrition during early life. For example, undernutrition of the infant at specified periods during the '%rain growth spurt," a period when the brain is going through its rapid phase of growth (Dobbing, '68) causes a permanent deficit in brain weight and DNA con- tent (Dobbing, '74) and in the cerebellar granule-to-Purkinje cell ratios (Bedi et al., '80a). However, the deficits in the synapse-to-neuron ratio (Cragg, '72; Thomas et al., '79; Bedi et al., '80b) observed as a result of undernutrition during early life disappear in later life following a period of nutritional rehabilitation. In addition to these morphological changes, undernutrition during early life also

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The effect of environmental stimulation on brain weight in previously undernourished rats

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Environmental Approaches to Recovery of Function from Brain Damage: A Review of Animal Studies (1981 to 1991)

Environmental Approaches to Recovery of Function from Brain Damage: A Review of Animal Studies (1981 to 1991)

Early nutrition and later achievement

The effects of environmental diversity on well‐fed and previously undernourished rats: I. Body and brain measurements

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