Effects of grouping and crowding on learning in isolation-reared adult rats

The impact of environmental and social factors on learning abilities: a meta-analysis

Since the 1950s, researchers have examined how differences in the social and asocial environment affect learning in rats, mice, and, more recently, a variety of other species. Despite this large body of research, little has been done to synthesize these findings and to examine if social and asocial environmental factors have consistent effects on cognitive abilities, and if so, what aspects of these factors have greater or lesser impact. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining how different external environmental features, including the social environment, impact learning (both speed of acquisition and performance). Using 531 mean-differences from 176 published articles across 27 species (with studies on rats and mice being most prominent) we conducted phylogenetically corrected mixed-effects models that reveal: (i) an average absolute effect size |d| = 0.55 and directional effect size d = 0.34; (ii) interventions manipulating the asocial environment result in larger effects than social interventions alone; and (iii) the length of the intervention is a significant predictor of effect size, with longer interventions resulting in larger effects. Additionally, much of the variation in effect size remained unexplained, possibly suggesting that species differ widely in how they are affected by environmental interventions due to varying ecological and evolutionary histories. Overall our results suggest that social and asocial environmental factors do significantly affect learning, but these effects are highly variable and perhaps not always as predicted. Most notably, the type (social or asocial) and length of interventions are important in determining the strength of the effect.

Memory impairment induced by different types of prolonged stress is dependent on the phase of the estrous cycle in female rats

A growing body of evidence demonstrates that estrogen and corticosterone (CORT) impact on cognition and emotion. On the one hand, ovarian hormones may have beneficial effects on several neurophysiological processes, including memory. On the other hand, chronic exposure to stressful conditions has negative effects on brain structures related to learning and memory. In the present study, we used the plus-maze discriminative avoidance task (PMDAT) to evaluate the influence of endogenous variations of sex hormones and exposure to different types of prolonged stressors on learning, memory, anxiety-like behavior and locomotion. Female Wistar rats were submitted to seven consecutive days of restraint stress (4 h/day), overcrowding (18 h/day) or social isolation (18 h/day) and tested in different phases of the estrous cycle. The main results showed that: (1) neither stress conditions nor estrous cycle modified PMDAT acquisition; (2) restraint stress and social isolation induced memory impairments; (3) this impairment was observed particularly in females in metestrus/diestrus; (4) stressed females in estrus displayed less risk assessment behavior, suggesting reduced anxiety-like behavior; (5) restraint stress and social isolation, but not overcrowding, elevated corticosterone levels. Taken together, our findings suggest that the phase of the estrous cycle is an important modulatory factor of the cognitive processing disrupted by stress in female rats. Negative effects were observed in metestrus/diestrus, indicating that the peak of sex hormones may protect females against stress-induced memory impairment.

Environmental change during postnatal development alters behaviour, cognitions and neurogenesis of mice

Four groups of male C57BL/6 mice were reared differing combinations of the two environments from 3 to 11 weeks after birth. At 12 and 13 weeks they were assessed by measures of behaviour and learning: open-field activity, auditory startle reflex and prepulse inhibition, water maze learning, and passive avoidance. Another four groups of mice reared under these varying conditions were examined for generation of neurons in hippocampus and cerebral cortex using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) at 12 weeks. Enriched (EE) and impoverished (PP) groups were housed in their respective environment for 8 weeks, enriched-impoverished (EP) and impoverished-enriched (PE) mice respectively were reared for 6 weeks in the first-mentioned environment and then for 2 weeks in the second. PP and EP mice showed hyperactivity, greater startle amplitude and significantly slower learning in a water maze than EE or PE animals, and also showed a memory deficit in a probe test, avoidance performance did not differ. Neural generation was greater in the EE and PE than PP and EP groups, especially in the hippocampus. These results suggest that environmental change critically affects behavioural and anatomic brain development, even if brief. In these mice, the effect of unfavourable early experience could be reversed by a later short of favourable experience.

Substance P injected into the dorsal periaqueductal gray causes anxiogenic effects similar to the long-term isolation as assessed by ultrasound vocalizations measurements

Housing conditions change the emotional state of the animals. Ultrasound vocalizations (USVs) termed as 22 kHz are the usual components of the defensive responses of rats exposed to threatening conditions such as isolation. The amount of emission of 22 kHz USVs depends on the intensity of the aversive stimuli. While short periods of isolation caused an anxiolytic-sensitive enhancement of the defensive responses, long-term isolation tended to reduce the defensive performance of the animals to aversive stimuli. The dorsal periaqueductal gray (dPAG) is an important vocal center and a crucial structure for the expression of defensive response. While it has been shown that Substance P (SP) at this midbrain level is involved in the modulation of the defensive response, its role in the emission of ultrasound vocalizations has not been evaluated. In this study we examined whether the resocialization and local injections of SP into the dPAG have an influence on the isolation-induced 22 kHz USVs recorded within the frequency range of 18-26 kHz. Rats isolated for 1 day showed a significant increase in the number and duration of USVs, which were reversed by resocialization. On the other hand, 2-week isolation reduced the number and duration of 22 kHz USVs, which could not be reversed by resocialization. SP injections into the dPAG (35 pmol/0.2 microL) caused a reduction in the 22 kHz USVs. Pretreatment with the NK-1 receptor antagonist spantide (100 pmol/0.2 microL) blocked these effects but exhibited no effect when given alone. These findings suggest that 1-day and 2-week isolation recruit distinct brain defensive systems. Also, in agreement with the notion that intense fear is associated with the neural substrates of fear of the dPAG, activation of NK-1 receptors of this midbrain structure reduces the 22 kHz USVs.

Adolescent enrichment partially reverses the social isolation syndrome

Early environmental experience produces profound neural and behavioural effects. For example, animals reared in isolation show increased anxiety, neophobia, and poorer performance in learning and spatial memory tasks. We investigated whether later enrichment reverses some or all of the deficits induced by isolation rearing. Eighty-four male Long-Evans rats (21 days old) were reared under different conditions: enriched (group housed with toys), isolated (one rat/cage), standard (two rats/cage), isolated-enriched, enriched-isolated, isolated-standard, or enriched-standard. In the latter four conditions, animals were housed in the first environment until adolescence (66 days). Following the 90-day rearing period, all animals were assessed in a battery of behavioural tests and cortical thickness was measured postmortem. Isolation rearing led to significant differences in behavioural tests measuring anxiety, spatial learning, and locomotor activity; switching the rearing condition partially reversed these changes. Rearing condition did not affect pain thresholds in the tail flick test or aversive associative learning in the conditioned taste aversion test. Enriched rats had the thickest cortex; isolated rats the thinnest. None of the switch groups differed significantly from standard-reared rats in this measure. Taken together, these results provide novel and interesting information regarding the effects of pre- or post-adolescent enrichment experience on behavioural and neural expression of the social isolation syndrome.

Role of resocialization and of 5-HT1A receptor activation on the anxiogenic effects induced by isolation in the elevated plus-maze test

Rats were isolated for periods varying from 1 h to 2 weeks and the exploratory activity of these animals on the elevated plus-maze was studied. Rats isolated from periods of 2 h on displayed a significant reduction in the number of entries and time spent in the open arms of the plus-maze compared to socially housed controls. This effect was not correlated with the decrease in the total number of entries also produced by isolation. Acute treatment with midazolam or resocialization for a 24-h period clearly reversed these responses produced by prior 2-h isolation in the elevated plus-maze. It is suggested that exposure to a 2-h isolation period could be a useful nonpharmacological means of generating anxiety in laboratory rodents. Chronic treatment, but not acute treatment, with gepirone, a 5-HT1A agonist, inhibited the anxiogenic effects caused by a 2-week period of isolation. The reduction in aversiveness promoted by resocialization may be due to a recovery in the 5-HT activity depressed by isolation in a much faster way than observed with chronic gepirone administration.

Resocialisation of isolation-reared rats does not alter their anxiogenic profile on the elevated X-maze model of anxiety

Rats were reared from weaning either in isolation or in social groups for 30 days and their behaviour on the elevated X-maze was studied. Isolation-reared rats displayed an anxiogenic profile on the X-maze compared to socially reared controls. Resocialisation of isolation-reared rats for a further 30 days did not reverse this anxiogenic profile, and isolation of the socially reared rats for 30 days did not produce an anxiogenic behavioural profile, indicating that the differences observed may be a result of a permanent developmental change. The locomotor hyperactivity induced by isolation was specific to the rearing conditions. It remains to be determined what neurochemical events are involved in the sustained effects of rearing in isolation.

Effects of chronic crowding stress on midbrain development: changes in dendritic spine density and morphology in jewel fish optic tectum

This study investigates the effects of a biologically relevant stressor, crowding, on the development of neurons in the major teleostean brain area, the optic tectum. Adult jewel fish were reared for approximately 4 years under conditions of moderate density (3.3 liter/fish), or under uncrowded control conditions (25 liter/fish). Quantitative morphometric measures of Golgi-stained tissue were used to test whether long-term crowding at moderate density produced developmental deficits lasting beyond the juvenile period. Chronic crowding did not affect body size or gross tectal growth. However, crowding significantly decreased the density of dendritic spine formation on apical dendrites of pyriform interneurons in the basal region of the tectum (stratum album centrale). Additionally, the shapes of spines on this segment of the apical dendrite were altered by crowding: relative frequencies of overall spine length and spine stem length changed significantly. These results are interpreted in the context of cytoarchitectural changes produced by more extreme developmental stressors in previous studies.

Short-term juvenile crowding arrests the developmental formation of dendritic spines on tectal interneurons in jewel fish

Development of jewel fish tectal interneurons was measured as a function of crowded development. The number of dendritic spines on the apical dendrites of pyriform interneurons was counted in the stratum album centrale plexiform layer because previous research indicated that this was the region in which both social deprivation and acute juvenile crowding produced neuronal deficits. Results showed that 100- and 130-day-old uncrowded juveniles had spine densities equivalent to 160-day-old juveniles crowded at 15 fish/3.6 liter for 60 days. Thus, no spine formation occurred after the onset of crowding. Sibling 160-day-old juveniles reared in the uncrowded condition (1 fish/4.6 liter) had already acquired the normal complement of spines exhibited by 4-year-old adults reared at low density (1 fish/25 liter). These results show that acute crowding can arrest the normal course of neuronal development in juvenile jewel fish.