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Enriched environment has limited capacity for the correction of hippocampal memory‐dependent schizoid behaviors in rats with early postnatal NMDAR dysfunction
Author(s) -
Melik Enver,
Babar Emine,
Kocahan Sayad,
Guven Mustafa,
Akillioglu Kubra
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of developmental neuroscience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.761
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1873-474X
pISSN - 0736-5748
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2013.10.004
Subject(s) - environmental enrichment , hippocampal formation , nmda receptor , hippocampus , psychology , episodic memory , neuroscience , spatial memory , cognition , developmental psychology , working memory , receptor , medicine
Pre‐ and early postnatal stress can cause dysfunction of the N‐methyl‐ d ‐aspartate receptor (NMDAR) and thereby promote the development of hippocampus memory‐dependent schizoid abnormalities of navigation in space, time, and knowledge. An enriched environment improves mental abilities in humans and animals. Whether an enriched environment can prevent the development of schizoid symptoms induced by neonatal NMDAR dysfunction was the central question of our paper. The experimental animals were Wistar rats. Early postnatal NMDAR dysfunction was created by systemic treatment of rat pups with the NMDAR antagonist MK‐801 at PD10–20 days. During the development period (PD21–90 days), the rats were reared in cognitively and physically enriched cages. Adult age rats were tested on navigation based on pattern separation and episodic memory in the open field and on auto‐hetero‐associations based on episodic and semantic memory in a step‐through passive avoidance task. The results showed that postnatal NMDAR antagonism caused abnormal behaviors in both tests. An enriched environment prevented deficits in the development of navigation in space based on pattern separation and hetero‐associations based on semantic memory. However, an enriched environment was unable to rescue navigation in space and auto‐associations based on episodic memory. These data may contribute to the understanding that an enriched environment has a limited capacity for therapeutic interventions in protecting the development of schizoid syndromes in children and adolescents.