Rosenzweig M R, Bennett E L
Department of Psychology-1650, University of California, Berkeley 94720-1650, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 1996 Jun;78(1):57-65. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(95)00216-2.
Supporting Hebb's 1949 hypothesis of use-induced plasticity of the nervous system, our group found in the 1960s that training or differential experience induced neurochemical changes in cerebral cortex of the rat and regional changes in weight of cortex. Further studies revealed changes in cortical thickness, size of synaptic contacts, number of dendritic spines, and dendritic branching. Similar effects were found whether rats were assigned to differential experience at weaning (25 days of age), as young adults (105 days) or as adults (285 days). Enriched early experience improved performance on several tests of learning. Cerebral results of experience in an enriched environment are similar to results of formal training. Enriched experience and training appear to evoke the same cascade of neurochemical events in causing plastic changes in brain. Sufficiently rich experience may be necessary for full growth of species-specific brain characteristics and behavioral potential. Clayton and Krebs found in 1994 that birds that normally store food have larger hippocampi than related species that do not store. This difference develops only in birds given the opportunity to store and recover food. Research on use-induced plasticity is being applied to promote child development, successful aging, and recovery from brain damage; it is also being applied to benefit animals in laboratories, zoos and farms.
为支持赫布1949年提出的神经系统使用诱导可塑性假说，我们小组在20世纪60年代发现，训练或差异化经历会在大鼠大脑皮层诱发神经化学变化以及皮层重量的区域变化。进一步研究揭示了皮层厚度、突触接触大小、树突棘数量和树突分支的变化。无论大鼠是在断奶时（25日龄）、成年早期（105日龄）还是成年期（285日龄）接受差异化经历，都发现了类似的效果。丰富的早期经历在多项学习测试中提高了表现。在丰富环境中的经历所产生的大脑结果与正规训练的结果相似。丰富的经历和训练在引起大脑可塑性变化方面似乎引发了相同的一系列神经化学事件。足够丰富的经历对于物种特异性大脑特征和行为潜能的充分发展可能是必要的。克莱顿和克雷布斯在1994年发现，正常储存食物的鸟类比不储存食物的相关物种有更大的海马体。这种差异仅在有机会储存和找回食物的鸟类中出现。关于使用诱导可塑性的研究正被应用于促进儿童发育、成功老龄化以及从脑损伤中恢复；它也被应用于使实验室、动物园和农场中的动物受益。
