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Updated: Sep 1, 2025
The Use of the Puzzle Box as a Means of Assessing the Efficacy of Environmental Enrichment
Published on: December 29, 2014
Environmental enrichment improves traumatic brain injury-induced behavioral phenotype and associated
Victor Tapias1, Eleni H Moschonas2, Corina O Bondi3
1Department of Neurology, Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Excellence Unit of the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Biology (IBGM) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Valladolid 47003, Spain; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Valladolid, Valladolid 47003, Spain.
Abstract:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes persistent cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Environmental enrichment (EE) refers to a housing condition that promotes sensory and social stimulation and improves cognition and motor performance but the underlying mechanisms responsible for such beneficial effects are not well defined. In this study, anesthetized adult rats received either a moderate-to-severe controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham surgery and then were housed in either EE or standard conditions. The results showed a significant increase in protein nitration and oxidation of lipids, impaired cognition and motor performance, and augmented N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor subtype-1 (NMDAR1) levels. However, EE initiated 24 h after CCI resulted in reduced oxidative insult and microglial activation and significant improvement in beam-balance/walk performance and both spatial learning and memory. We hypothesize that following TBI there is an upstream activation of NMDAR that promotes oxidative insult and an inflammatory response, thereby resulting in impaired behavioral functioning but EE may exert a neuroprotective effect via sustained downregulation of NMDAR1.
