Dose-dependent effects of differential rearing on amphetamine-induced hyperactivity

Differential rearing decreases psychostimulant-induced hyperactivity. In general, environmental enrichment decreases the locomotor response to low unit doses of psychostimuluants, whereas isolation increases the response. It is not clear whether the changes in locomotor activity are due to an enrichment-induced decrease or an isolation-induced increase. Therefore, the current experiments examined the ability of enrichment rearing, as compared with isolation and standard rearing, to attenuate amphetamine-induced hyperactivity following acute administration, repeated administration, and sensitization of a low (0.3 mg/kg) and moderate (1.0 mg/kg) dose of amphetamine. Rats were reared under enriched, isolated, or standard conditions. Enrichment slowed the acquisition of amphetamine-induced hyperactivity and attenuated the expression of amphetamine-induced sensitization, but only at the low unit dose. Enrichment did not protect against the expression of conditioned hyperactivity at either of the doses tested. The behavior of standard condition rats was generally closer to that of isolated condition rats than enriched condition rats, suggesting that the enrichment attenuates the response to amphetamine as opposed to isolation rearing increasing the response to amphetamine. These results suggest that the effects of enrichment are because of enrichment manipulation and not simply a contrast from the effects of isolation.