PMID- 12645040
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20030530
LR  - 20071114
IS  - 0887-4476 (Print)
IS  - 0887-4476 (Linking)
VI  - 48
IP  - 3
DP  - 2003 Jun 1
TI  - Environmental complexity has different effects on the structure of neurons in the 
      prefrontal cortex versus the parietal cortex or nucleus accumbens.
PG  - 149-53
AB  - Complex housing has been used widely as a model of experience-dependent change. 
      Animals housed in complex environments typically show synaptogenesis throughout 
      the sensory and motor cortex as well as the striatum and hippocampus, and thus it 
      is generally assumed that such changes are likely to be found throughout the 
      cerebrum. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether persistent 
      alterations of dendritic morphology would be found in two regions that had 
      previously not been examined, namely, the medial prefrontal region (Cg3) and 
      nucleus accumbens (NAcc). The results show that housing female rats in complex 
      environments for 3.5 months increased dendritic arborization on medium spiny 
      neurons in the NAcc and on pyramidal cells in the somatosensory cortex (Par 1), 
      but not in Cg3. Environmental complexity increased spine density in all three 
      areas, however. The failure to find increased dendritic length or branching in 
      Cg3 was unexpected. Thus, the data suggest that complex housing may not engage 
      prefrontal neurons in the same manner as neurons in sensory or motor areas. It 
      appears that complex housing may not produce generalized changes in cerebral 
      morphology. The data further suggest that it is prudent to measure both dendritic 
      length and spine density in studies of experience-dependent effects on synaptic 
      plasticity.
CI  - Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
FAU - Kolb, Bryan
AU  - Kolb B
AD  - Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, 
      Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4 Canada. Kolb@uleth.ca
FAU - Gorny, Grazyna
AU  - Gorny G
FAU - Soderpalm, Anna H V
AU  - Soderpalm AH
FAU - Robinson, Terry E
AU  - Robinson TE
LA  - eng
GR  - K05 DA00473/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 DA13398/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Comparative Study
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PT  - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
PL  - United States
TA  - Synapse
JT  - Synapse (New York, N.Y.)
JID - 8806914
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Dendrites/*ultrastructure
MH  - Female
MH  - *Housing, Animal
MH  - Neuronal Plasticity/*physiology
MH  - Neurons/*cytology/ultrastructure
MH  - Nucleus Accumbens/cytology
MH  - Parietal Lobe/cytology
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/cytology
MH  - Rats
MH  - Rats, Sprague-Dawley
EDAT- 2003/03/20 04:00
MHDA- 2003/05/31 05:00
CRDT- 2003/03/20 04:00
PHST- 2003/03/20 04:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2003/05/31 05:00 [medline]
PHST- 2003/03/20 04:00 [entrez]
AID - 10.1002/syn.10196 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Synapse. 2003 Jun 1;48(3):149-53. doi: 10.1002/syn.10196.