Abilities in tactile discrimination of textures in adult rats exposed to enriched or impoverished environments

Behavioural Brain Research
Stéphanie BourgeonJacques-Olivier Coq

Abstract

In previous studies, we have shown that housing in enriched environment for about 3 months after weaning improved the topographic organization and decreased the size of the receptive fields (RFs) located on the glabrous skin surfaces in the forepaw maps of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) in rats [Exp. Brain Res. 121 (1998) 191]. In contrast, housing in impoverished environment induced a degradation of the SI forepaw representation, characterized by topographic disruptions, a reduction of the cutaneous forepaw area and an enlargement of the glabrous RFs [Exp. Brain Res. 129 (1999) 518]. Based on these two studies, we postulated that these representational alterations could underlie changes in haptic perception. Therefore, the present study was aimed at determining the influence of housing conditions on the rat's abilities in tactile texture discrimination. After a 2-month exposure to enriched or impoverished environments, rats were trained to perform a discrimination task during locomotion on floorboards of different roughness. At the end of every daily behavioral session, rats were replaced in their respective housing environment. Rats had to discriminate homogeneous (low roughness) from heterogeneous floorboards (combina...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 26, 2005·Behavioural Brain Research·Maria Giuseppa LeggioLaura Petrosini
Oct 17, 2008·Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery·Younghoon R ChoHani S Matloub
Jan 24, 2016·Life Sciences·Ali RoohbakhshMohammad Mohammad-Zadeh
Nov 29, 2007·Journal of Physiology, Paris·Jean-Luc Blanc, Jacques-Olivier Coq
Oct 31, 2007·Magnetic Resonance in Medicine : Official Journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine·Younghoon R ChoJames S Hyde
Sep 18, 2014·Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience·Dasuni S Alwis, Ramesh Rajan
Jun 29, 2004·Behavioural Brain Research·Stéphanie BourgeonJacques-Olivier Coq
Jan 21, 2018·Scientific Reports·Roberta NarducciLamberto Maffei
Jan 3, 2014·Physiological Reviews·Alessandro SaleLamberto Maffei

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