Equal effects of typical environmental and specific social enrichment on posttraumatic cognitive functioning after fimbria-fornix transection in rats

TY - JOUR

T1 - Equal effects of typical environmental and specific social enrichment on posttraumatic cognitive functioning after fimbria-fornix transection in rats

AU - Gram, Marie Gajhede

AU - Gade, Louise

AU - Wogensen, Elise

AU - Mogensen, Jesper

AU - Rytter, Hana Malá

PY - 2015/12/10

Y1 - 2015/12/10

N2 - Enriched environment (EE) has been shown to have beneficial effects on cognitive recovery after brain injury. Typical EE comprises three components: (i) enlarged living area providing physical activation, (ii) sensory stimulation, and (iii) social stimulation. The present study assessed the specific contribution of the social stimulation. Animals were randomly divided into groups of (1) a typical EE, (2) pure social enrichment (SE), or (3) standard housing (SH) and subjected to either a sham operation or transection of the fimbria-fornix (FF). The effect of these conditions on acquisition of a delayed alternation task in a T-maze was assessed. The sham control groups were not affected by housing conditions. In the lesioned groups, both typical EE and SE improved the task acquisition, compared to SH. A baseline one-hour activity measurement confirmed an equal level of physical activity in the EE and SE groups. After delayed alternation testing, pharmacological challenges (muscarinergic antagonist scopolamine and dopaminergic antagonist SKF-83566) were used to assess cholinergic and dopaminergic contributions to task solution. Scopolamine led to a marked impairment in all groups. SKF-83566 significantly enhanced the performance of the lesioned group subjected to SE. The results demonstrate that housing in a typical as well as atypical EE can enhance cognitive recovery after mechanical injury to the hippocampus. The scopolamine challenge revealed a cholinergic dependency during task performance in all groups, regardless of lesion and housing conditions. The dopaminergic challenge revealed a difference in the neural substrates mediating recovery in the lesioned groups exposed to different types of housing.

AB - Enriched environment (EE) has been shown to have beneficial effects on cognitive recovery after brain injury. Typical EE comprises three components: (i) enlarged living area providing physical activation, (ii) sensory stimulation, and (iii) social stimulation. The present study assessed the specific contribution of the social stimulation. Animals were randomly divided into groups of (1) a typical EE, (2) pure social enrichment (SE), or (3) standard housing (SH) and subjected to either a sham operation or transection of the fimbria-fornix (FF). The effect of these conditions on acquisition of a delayed alternation task in a T-maze was assessed. The sham control groups were not affected by housing conditions. In the lesioned groups, both typical EE and SE improved the task acquisition, compared to SH. A baseline one-hour activity measurement confirmed an equal level of physical activity in the EE and SE groups. After delayed alternation testing, pharmacological challenges (muscarinergic antagonist scopolamine and dopaminergic antagonist SKF-83566) were used to assess cholinergic and dopaminergic contributions to task solution. Scopolamine led to a marked impairment in all groups. SKF-83566 significantly enhanced the performance of the lesioned group subjected to SE. The results demonstrate that housing in a typical as well as atypical EE can enhance cognitive recovery after mechanical injury to the hippocampus. The scopolamine challenge revealed a cholinergic dependency during task performance in all groups, regardless of lesion and housing conditions. The dopaminergic challenge revealed a difference in the neural substrates mediating recovery in the lesioned groups exposed to different types of housing.

U2 - 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.10.019

DO - 10.1016/j.brainres.2015.10.019

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 26499260

SN - 0006-8993

VL - 1629

SP - 182

EP - 195

JO - Brain Research

JF - Brain Research

ER -