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Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan

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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.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratefulness to O. Bildstein, G. Edomwony, and O. Egesi for their valuable and constant investment in the care provided to the rats and the outstanding management of the enriched environment over a 2-year period. The authors are especially grateful to Christine Demangeat and Rémy Sapin, who performed the plasmatic corticosterone level measurements. This study was supported by the Université de Strasbourg and the CNRS.

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  1. 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

    Hayat Harati, Alexandra Barbelivien, Karine Herbeaux, Marc-Antoine Muller, Michel Engeln, Christian Kelche, Jean-Christophe Cassel & Monique Majchrzak

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  1. Hayat Harati
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  2. Alexandra Barbelivien
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  3. Karine Herbeaux
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  4. Marc-Antoine Muller
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  6. Christian Kelche
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  7. Jean-Christophe Cassel
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  8. Monique Majchrzak
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Correspondence to Monique Majchrzak.

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Hayat Harati and Alexandra Barbelivien are equivalent co-first authors.

Jean-Christophe Cassel and Monique Majchrzak are equivalent co-last authors.

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Harati, H., Barbelivien, A., Herbeaux, K. et al. Lifelong environmental enrichment in rats: impact on emotional behavior, spatial memory vividness, and cholinergic neurons over the lifespan. AGE 35, 1027–1043 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-012-9424-8

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