Enriched experience and recovery from amblyopia in adult rats: Impact of motor, social and sensory components

• Published in: Neuropharmacology Vol. 62; no. 7; pp. 2387 - 2396
• Main Authors: Baroncelli, Laura, Bonaccorsi, Joyce, Milanese, Marco, Bonifacino, Tiziana, Giribaldi, Francesco, Manno, Ilaria, Cenni, Maria Cristina, Berardi, Nicoletta, Bonanno, Giambattista, Maffei, Lamberto, Sale, Alessandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.06.2012
• Subjects: Acuity; Age Factors; Amblyopia; Amblyopia - physiopathology; Amblyopia - psychology; Amblyopia - rehabilitation; Animals; Brain; Cortex (visual); Enrichment; Environment; Environmental stimulation; GABAergic inhibition; Interpersonal Relations; Learning; Learning - physiology; Motor Activity - physiology; Neural Inhibition - physiology; Ocular dominance; Perceptual learning; Photic Stimulation - methods; Physical Conditioning, Animal - methods; Physical Conditioning, Animal - physiology; Physical training; Plasticity; Plasticity (neural); Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Recovery of Function - physiology; Sensory Deprivation - physiology; Social interactions; Visual discrimination learning; Visual perception; Visual Perception - physiology; Perceptual learning; Environmental stimulation; GABAergic inhibition; Amblyopia; Plasticity

Amblyopia is one of the most common forms of visual impairment, arising from an early functional imbalance between the two eyes. It is currently accepted that, due to a lack of neural plasticity, amblyopia is an untreatable pathology in adults. Environmental enrichment (EE) emerged as a strategy hig...