Goes Tiago Costa, Antunes Fabrício Dias, Teixeira-Silva Flavia
Departamento de Fisiologia, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Cidade Universitária "Prof. José Aloísio de Campos", 49100-000 São Cristóvão, SE, Brazil.
Neurosci Lett. 2015 Jan 1;584:93-6. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.10.004. Epub 2014 Oct 12.
Experimental evidence indicates that enriched environment (EE) induces neurobiological and behavioural alterations. EE in early life improves learning and memory and reduces trait and state anxiety. However, the effect of EE established in adulthood has rarely been investigated. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of modifying the levels of trait and/or state anxiety of adult rats exposed to EE. Seventy adult Wistar male rats were first tested in the free-exploratory paradigm (FEP) and were categorized according to their levels of trait anxiety (high, medium and low). Subsequently, half of the animals from each category returned to their home cages (standard condition: SC) and the other half was transferred to an enriched environment (enriched condition: EC). After three weeks, all animals were again tested in FEP. Seven to 10 days later, fifty of the seventy animals were tested on the elevated plus-maze test (EPM). In FEP, EE reduced locomotor activity in the second exposition independently of the anxiety category and, it decreased the levels of trait anxiety of highly anxious rats. No effect of EE was observed on EPM. In conclusion, EE established in adulthood was able to reduce high trait anxiety, a major risk factor for anxiety disorders.
实验证据表明，丰富环境（EE）会引起神经生物学和行为改变。早年的丰富环境可改善学习和记忆，并减轻特质焦虑和状态焦虑。然而，成年期建立的丰富环境的影响鲜有研究。因此，本研究的目的是评估改变暴露于丰富环境的成年大鼠的特质和/或状态焦虑水平的可能性。70只成年雄性Wistar大鼠首先在自由探索范式（FEP）中接受测试，并根据其特质焦虑水平（高、中、低）进行分类。随后，每个类别中的一半动物返回其饲养笼（标准条件：SC），另一半被转移到丰富环境（丰富条件：EC）。三周后，所有动物再次在FEP中接受测试。7至10天后，70只动物中的50只在高架十字迷宫试验（EPM）中接受测试。在FEP中，丰富环境在第二次暴露时降低了运动活动，且与焦虑类别无关，并且它降低了高度焦虑大鼠的特质焦虑水平。在EPM中未观察到丰富环境的影响。总之，成年期建立的丰富环境能够降低高度特质焦虑，这是焦虑症的一个主要危险因素。
