A single exposure to an enriched environment stimulates the activation of discrete neuronal populations in the brain of the fos-tau-lacZ mouse

Abstract

Storage of experience, including learning and memory, is thought to involve plasticity within pre-existing brain circuits. One model for looking at experience-dependent changes is environmental enrichment (EE), which involves exposing animals to a complex novel environment. Animals exposed to EE have previously been shown to exhibit a variety of behavioural and structural alterations in the brain, including decreased stress, improved learning and memory, altered levels of immediate early genes and synaptic change in the visual cortex. We were interested in understanding what regions of the brain are activated during the initial stages of EE. We used fos-tau-lacZ (FTL) transgenic mice to exam..