CNR Neuroscience Institute, via Moruzzi 1, I-56124, Pisa, Italy.
Exp Gerontol. 2012 Apr;47(4):337-41. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2012.01.007. Epub 2012 Feb 4.
Brain aging is characterized by functional deterioration across multiple systems, associated to a progressive decay of neural plasticity. Here, we explored environmental enrichment (EE), a condition of enhanced sensory-motor and cognitive stimulation, as a strategy to restore plasticity processes in the old brain. Visual system is one of the paradigmatic models for studying experience-dependent plasticity. While reducing input from one eye through monocular deprivation induces a marked ocular dominance (OD) shift of neurons in the primary visual cortex during development, the same manipulation is totally ineffective after the closure of the critical period. We show that EE is able to reactivate OD plasticity in the visual cortex of aging rats, as assessed with both visual-evoked potentials and single-unit recordings. A marked reduction in intracortical GABAergic inhibition and a remodeling of extracellular matrix accompany this effect. The non-invasive nature of EE makes this paradigm eligible for human application.
大脑老化的特征是多个系统的功能恶化，伴随着神经可塑性的逐渐衰退。在这里，我们探讨了环境丰富（EE），这是一种增强感觉-运动和认知刺激的条件，作为恢复老年大脑中可塑性过程的一种策略。视觉系统是研究经验依赖性可塑性的典型模型之一。虽然通过单眼剥夺减少一只眼睛的输入会在发育过程中引起初级视觉皮层神经元的明显眼优势（OD）转移，但在关键期关闭后，同样的操作完全无效。我们表明，EE 能够使衰老大鼠的视觉皮层重新激活 OD 可塑性，通过视觉诱发电位和单细胞记录来评估。这种效应伴随着皮质内 GABA 能抑制的显著减少和细胞外基质的重塑。EE 的非侵入性使其适合于人类应用。
