title: Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan.
abstract: We assessed lifelong environmental enrichment effects on possible age-related modifications in emotional behaviors, spatial memory acquisition, retrieval of recent and remote spatial memory, and cholinergic forebrain systems. At the age of 1 month, Long-Evans female rats were placed in standard or enriched rearing conditions and tested after 3 (young), 12 (middle-aged), or 24 (aged) months. Environmental enrichment decreased the reactivity to stressful situations regardless of age. In the water maze test, it delayed the onset of learning deficits and prevented age-dependent spatial learning and recent memory retrieval alterations. Remote memory retrieval, which was altered independently of age under standard rearing conditions, was rescued by enrichment in young and middle-aged, but unfortunately not aged rats. A protected basal forebrain cholinergic system, which could well be one out of several neuronal manifestations of lifelong environmental enrichment, might have contributed to the behavioral benefits of this enrichment.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Imagerie et de Neurosciences Cognitives, UMR 7237 CNRS, Université de Strasbourg, IFR 37 de Neurosciences, GDR 2905 du CNRS, 12 rue Goethe, 67000, Strasbourg, France.
authors.forename: Hayat
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Harati
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbelivien
authors.forename: Karine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Herbeaux
authors.forename: Marc-Antoine
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engeln
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kelche
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Cassel
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Majchrzak
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology