Department of Biology, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven CT, USA.
Department of Psychology, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven CT, USA.
Physiol Behav. 2020 Nov 1;226:113133. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2020.113133. Epub 2020 Aug 12.
Environmental enrichment (EE) is one experimental manipulation that induces changes in the brain. However, it is important to distinguish between physical and social components of enrichment. To this end we established four groups of rats reared in different enriched environments during the adolescent period. Our results indicate heightened social memory and increased spine density in dentate gyrus specifically in socially enriched animals. Physical enrichment increased spine density in CA1. Dopamine D2 receptor expression in hippocampus was decreased across all enrichment conditions. Altogether, our results demonstrate differing effects of physical and social enrichment, supporting an important role for environment in synaptogenesis, behavior, and dopaminergic signaling.
环境丰富（EE）是一种可以引起大脑变化的实验操作。然而，区分丰富环境的物理和社会成分很重要。为此，我们建立了四组在青春期在不同丰富环境中饲养的大鼠。我们的结果表明，社交丰富的动物具有更高的社会记忆和齿状回中特定的棘突密度增加。物理丰富增加了 CA1 中的棘突密度。所有丰富条件下，海马中的多巴胺 D2 受体表达均降低。总之，我们的结果表明物理和社会丰富的效果不同，支持环境在突触发生、行为和多巴胺能信号传导中起着重要作用。
