A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions
Abstract Enrichment in rodents affects brain structure, improves behavioral performance, and is neuroprotective. Similarly, in humans, according to the cognitive reserve concept, enriched experience is functionally protective against neuropathology. Despite this parallel, the ability to translate ro...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2022-09-01
|
| Series: | npj Science of Learning |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00134-x |
| _version_ | 1798032303214034944 |
|---|---|
| author | Sandra Gattas Heather A. Collett Andrew E. Huff Samantha D. Creighton Siobhon E. Weber Shoshana S. Buckhalter Silas A. Manning Hardeep S. Ryait Bruce L. McNaughton Boyer D. Winters |
| author_facet | Sandra Gattas Heather A. Collett Andrew E. Huff Samantha D. Creighton Siobhon E. Weber Shoshana S. Buckhalter Silas A. Manning Hardeep S. Ryait Bruce L. McNaughton Boyer D. Winters |
| author_sort | Sandra Gattas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Enrichment in rodents affects brain structure, improves behavioral performance, and is neuroprotective. Similarly, in humans, according to the cognitive reserve concept, enriched experience is functionally protective against neuropathology. Despite this parallel, the ability to translate rodent studies to human clinical situations is limited. This limitation is likely due to the simple cognitive processes probed in rodent studies and the inability to control, with existing methods, the degree of rodent engagement with enrichment material. We overcome these two difficulties with behavioral tasks that probe, in a fine-grained manner, aspects of higher-order cognition associated with deterioration with aging and dementia, and a new enrichment protocol, the ‘Obstacle Course’ (OC), which enables controlled enrichment delivery, respectively. Together, these two advancements will enable better specification (and comparisons) of the nature of impairments in animal models of complex mental disorders and the potential for remediation from various types of intervention (e.g., enrichment, drugs). We found that two months of OC enrichment produced substantial and sustained enhancements in categorization memory, perceptual object invariance, and cross-modal sensory integration in mice. We also tested mice on behavioral tasks previously shown to benefit from traditional enrichment: spontaneous object recognition, object location memory, and pairwise visual discrimination. OC enrichment improved performance relative to standard housing on all six tasks and was in most cases superior to conventional home-cage enrichment and exercise track groups. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:10:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-930ae4eff695404aac971c8264065280 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-7936 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T20:10:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | npj Science of Learning |
| spelling | doaj.art-930ae4eff695404aac971c82640652802022-12-22T04:05:06ZengNature Portfolionpj Science of Learning2056-79362022-09-017111210.1038/s41539-022-00134-xA rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functionsSandra Gattas0Heather A. Collett1Andrew E. Huff2Samantha D. Creighton3Siobhon E. Weber4Shoshana S. Buckhalter5Silas A. Manning6Hardeep S. Ryait7Bruce L. McNaughton8Boyer D. Winters9Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of CaliforniaDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphDepartment of Biomedical Science, University of GuelphDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphCanadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of LethbridgeCanadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience, University of LethbridgeDepartment of Psychology and Collaborative Neuroscience Program, University of GuelphAbstract Enrichment in rodents affects brain structure, improves behavioral performance, and is neuroprotective. Similarly, in humans, according to the cognitive reserve concept, enriched experience is functionally protective against neuropathology. Despite this parallel, the ability to translate rodent studies to human clinical situations is limited. This limitation is likely due to the simple cognitive processes probed in rodent studies and the inability to control, with existing methods, the degree of rodent engagement with enrichment material. We overcome these two difficulties with behavioral tasks that probe, in a fine-grained manner, aspects of higher-order cognition associated with deterioration with aging and dementia, and a new enrichment protocol, the ‘Obstacle Course’ (OC), which enables controlled enrichment delivery, respectively. Together, these two advancements will enable better specification (and comparisons) of the nature of impairments in animal models of complex mental disorders and the potential for remediation from various types of intervention (e.g., enrichment, drugs). We found that two months of OC enrichment produced substantial and sustained enhancements in categorization memory, perceptual object invariance, and cross-modal sensory integration in mice. We also tested mice on behavioral tasks previously shown to benefit from traditional enrichment: spontaneous object recognition, object location memory, and pairwise visual discrimination. OC enrichment improved performance relative to standard housing on all six tasks and was in most cases superior to conventional home-cage enrichment and exercise track groups.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00134-x |
| spellingShingle | Sandra Gattas Heather A. Collett Andrew E. Huff Samantha D. Creighton Siobhon E. Weber Shoshana S. Buckhalter Silas A. Manning Hardeep S. Ryait Bruce L. McNaughton Boyer D. Winters A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions npj Science of Learning |
| title | A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| title_full | A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| title_fullStr | A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| title_full_unstemmed | A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| title_short | A rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| title_sort | rodent obstacle course procedure controls delivery of enrichment and enhances complex cognitive functions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-022-00134-x |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sandragattas arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT heatheracollett arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT andrewehuff arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT samanthadcreighton arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT siobhoneweber arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT shoshanasbuckhalter arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT silasamanning arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT hardeepsryait arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT brucelmcnaughton arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT boyerdwinters arodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT sandragattas rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT heatheracollett rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT andrewehuff rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT samanthadcreighton rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT siobhoneweber rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT shoshanasbuckhalter rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT silasamanning rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT hardeepsryait rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT brucelmcnaughton rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions AT boyerdwinters rodentobstaclecourseprocedurecontrolsdeliveryofenrichmentandenhancescomplexcognitivefunctions |