Environmental influences on locomotor recovery following cortical lesions in rats

Groups of rats were exposed to an enriched environment 2 hr per day for 30 days during the immediate pre- and/or postoperative period, or not at all. Animals in four of these groups sustained lesions in the bilateral sensorimotor cortex. One sham-operated control group was enriched pre- and postoperatively; a second control group was not. Animals were trained preoperatively to locomote across a narrow elevated runway. Testing on the locomotor task began 31 days after surgery and continued until preoperative performance levels were achieved. Preoperative enrichment had the most potent influence on initial deficit and recovery of locomotion. Animals that were enriched preoperatively failed to demonstrate any deficit postoperatively, and the topology of their hindlimb movement appeared to be normal. In preoperatively impoverished animals, postoperative enrichment reduced the degree of initial deficit and speeded recovery of locomotion when compared with animals not enriched at all. However, preoperatively impoverished rats demonstrated an aberrant topology of hindlimb movement even after they were "behaviorally recovered".