Effects of chronic crowding stress on midbrain development: changes in dendritic spine density and morphology in...

This study investigates the effects of a biologically relevant stressor, crowding, on the development of neurons in the major teleostean brain area, the optic tectum. Adult jewel fish were reared for approximately 4 years under conditions of moderate density (3.3 liter/fish), or under uncrowded control conditions (25 liter/fish). Quantitative morphometric measures of Golgi-stained tissue were used to test whether long-term crowding at moderate density produced developmental deficits lasting beyond the juvenile period. Chronic crowding did not affect body size or gross tectal growth. However, crowding significantly decreased the density of dendritic spine formation on apical dendrites of pyriform interneurons in the basal region of the tectum (stratum album centrale). Additionally, the shapes of spines on this segment of the apical dendrite were altered by crowding: relative frequencies of overall spine length and spine stem length changed significantly. These results are interpreted in the context of cytoarchitectural changes produced by more extreme developmental stressors in previous studies.