title: Environmental enrichment facilitates amygdala kindling but reduces kindling-induced fear in male rats.
abstract: The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of prior environmental enrichment on the acquisition of kindling and the expression of kindling-induced fear. Sixty male rats were housed either in an enriched environment or in isolation, starting immediately after weaning. As adults, they were subjected to either 50 amygdala-kindling stimulations or sham stimulations, followed by testing in an unfamiliar open field. The kindled-enriched rats acquired the kindled state more quickly than did the kindled-isolated rats, but they also showed less fear in the open field than did the kindled-isolated rats. These results suggest that environmental enrichment has differential effects on kindling acquisition and its behavioral consequences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4J1, Canada.
authors.forename: Nicole A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Amanda J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wintink
authors.forename: Lisa E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Kalynchuk
mesh_terms: D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D004777:Environment; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D007696:Kindling, Neurologic / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012934:Social Isolation