Environmental enrichment in the absence of wheel running produces beneficial behavioural and anti-oxidative effects in rats

• Published in: Behavioural processes Vol. 144; pp. 66 - 71
• Main Authors: Mármol, F., Sánchez, J., Torres, M.N., Chamizo, V.D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2017; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Animals; Antioxidants; Antioxidative measurements; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Behavioral sciences; Enrichment; Environment; Environmental enrichment; Hippocampus; Hippocampus - metabolism; Housing, Animal; Male; Maze Learning - physiology; Morris water maze; Motor Activity - physiology; Oxidative Stress - physiology; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Rodents; Thigmotaxis; Weaning; Wheel running; Antioxidative measurements; Morris water maze; Thigmotaxis; Environmental enrichment; Hippocampus
• ISSN: 0376-6357; 1872-8308
• DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.09.009

•Environmental enrichment without wheel running produced beneficial effects in rats.•Subsequent evaluation of antioxidative effects in the hippocampus showed that the EE protocol produced higher values for antioxidant measures.•The present EE protocol also produced lower values for oxidative stress parameters. The effects of early environmental enrichment (EE) when solving a simple spatial task in adult male rats were assessed. After weaning, rats were housed in pairs in enriched or standard cages (EE and control groups) for two and a half months. Then the rats were trained in a triangular-shaped pool to find a hidden platform whose location was defined in terms of two sources of information, a landmark outside the pool and a particular corner of the pool. As expected, enriched rats reached the platform faster than control animals. Enriched rats also performed better on a subsequent test trial without the platform with the geometry cue individually presented (in the absence of the landmark). Most importantly, the beneficial effects of the present protocol were obtained in the absence of wheel running. Additionally, the antioxidative effects in the hippocampus produced by the previous protocol are also shown.