Experience-dependent changes in dendritic arbor and spine density in neocortex vary qualitatively with age and sex

Male and female Long-Evans hooded rats were placed in the complex environments for 3 months either at weaning (22 days), in young adulthood (120 days), or in senescence (24 months). The dendritic morphology of both the apical and basilar fields of layer III pyramidal cells was analyzed in both parietal and visual cortex. There were two novel results. First, although spine density was increased significantly with complex-housing in adulthood, it was decreased significantly by the same housing during development. Second, dendritic length was increased in both parietal and occipital cortex at all ages in males and was increased in adult females as well, but juvenile females showed no change in dendritic length in the occipital cortex and only a small effect on the apical field in parietal cortex. Thus, there are qualitative differences in the changes in spine density at different ages and the dendritic changes in response to complex versus isolated housing vary with sex, and in females, the changes vary with age as well. These results may explain some of the apparent inconsistencies in reports of spine and dendrite changes in the literature.