Denenberg V H, Garbanati J, Sherman D A, Yutzey D A, Kaplan R
Science. 1978 Sep 22;201(4361):1150-2. doi: 10.1126/science.684436.
The hypothesis tested was that the effects of early experiences are asymmetrically distributed in the two brain hemispheres. Litters were either handled or not handled between birth and weaning, and the weanlings were reared in either laboratory cages or enriched environments between 21 and 50 days. When approximately 135 days old, animals within each of the four treatment groups had a right neocortical ablation, a left neocortical ablation, a sham operation, or no surgery. About 1 month later, all animals were given the open-field test for emotionality and exploratory behavior. Ablating either the right or left neocortex increased the activity scores of nonhandled controls, but there was no evidence of lateralization. However, the groups handled in infancy did show lateralization. Ablating the left brain did not significantly increase activity, but ablating the right brain caused extreme scores: handled rats without enrichment experience were the most active, and handled rats also placed into the enriched environment had near-zero scores in the open field.
所检验的假设是，早期经历的影响在两个脑半球中呈不对称分布。在出生至断奶期间，将幼崽分为接受抚摸组和未接受抚摸组，断奶后的幼崽在21至50天期间分别饲养在实验室笼子或丰富环境中。当动物大约135日龄时，四个处理组中的每一组动物分别接受右侧新皮层切除、左侧新皮层切除、假手术或不进行手术。大约1个月后，对所有动物进行旷场试验以测试情绪和探索行为。切除右侧或左侧新皮层会增加未接受抚摸的对照组的活动得分，但没有证据表明存在功能偏侧化。然而，在幼年时接受抚摸的组确实表现出功能偏侧化。切除左脑并没有显著增加活动量，但切除右脑导致得分极高：没有丰富环境经历的接受抚摸的大鼠最为活跃，而处于丰富环境中的接受抚摸的大鼠在旷场试验中的得分几乎为零。
