Rearing complexity affects branching of dendrites in the visual cortex of the rat.
Higher-order dendritic branching is considerably greater in Golgistained neurons from the occipital cortex of rats reared in groups in a complex environment than in similar neurons of littermates reared individually in laboratory cages have intermediate amounts of branching, while lower-order branching did not appear to be affected by any rearing environment.
D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites; D004777:Environment; D051381:Rats; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D012934:Social Isolation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*