Environmental enrichment and isolation rearing in the rat: effects on locomotor behavior and startle response plasticity

Abstract

Background: Laboratory rats exhibit behavioral changes that reflect a continuum of early life experience, from isolation-reared to socially reared to enrichment-reared conditions. In this study, we further characterize the behavioral effects of isolation, social, and enriched rearing on locomotor activity, patterns of movement and exploration, startle reactivity, prepulse inhibition (PPI), and habituation in adult rats.

Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rat pups (21 days old) were housed under enrichment (three per cage with toys and exposure to enriched environments), normal social (three per cage), or isolation (one per cage) conditions. Eight weeks later, locomotor and exploratory behaviors, acoustic startle reactivity, PPI, and habituation were measured in the three groups.

Results: Enrichment-reared rats exhibited reduced exploration and rapid habituation of locomotor activity, increased startle reactivity, and normal PPI and startle habituation compared with socially reared controls. Isolation-reared rats exhibited increased exploration and normal habituation of locomotor activity, increased startle reactivity, reduced PPI, and normal startle habituation.

Conclusions: Isolation- and enrichment-reared rats exhibited opposite changes in some behaviors and similar changes in other behaviors. Specifically, rats raised in enriched conditions appear more efficient at assimilating stimuli from their environment than do rats reared in isolation. Nevertheless, both enrichment- and isolation-rearing conditions increased startle reactivity, whereas only isolation rearing led to disruptions of PPI in adulthood. These results suggest that isolation- and enrichment-rearing conditions produce some common and some differential effects on how rats process environmental stimuli. For studies of isolation-rearing effects on PPI, however, the complex and resource-intensive enrichment condition seems to offer few advantages over the normal social condition.