Environmental Enrichment Enhancing Neural Plasticity Resilience And Repair

The collection of articles in this eBook focuses on important issues related to environmental enrichment including standardization, neurobehavioral and physiological effects across the age axis, neuroprotection and plasticity, and implications for translation. Evaluation of key parameters and issues related to standardization is important for promoting species-typical behavior and broader adaptation and translation to clinical settings. Furthermore, understanding seminal mechanisms contributing to the effects of environmental enrichment in both biological sexes is also important for the application of this housing condition to preclinical models of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Taken together, this body of work points to the relevance of enriched housing environments in laboratory practice and the potential for translation to clinical populations.

Enriched and Impoverished Environments: Effects on Brain and Behaviour is the most recent review of the active area of neuronal plasticity. The question of how experience is recorded is fundamental to psychology; speculations and investigations concerning the role of the brain in this process have entered a particularly exciting phase as of the late 1980's. Manipulations of environmental complexity is one of the earliest methods utilized in the study of neural plasticity. This monograph organizes the evidence to date concerning the responsiveness of neural and behavioural systems to external manipulation of the environment. Further consideration is given to the issues of causation of the general effects of environment on brain and behaviour.

Environmental enrichment (EE) provides many neurological benefits including increased cortical weight, neuronal density, dendritic branching, and angiogenesis. These changes manifest as improved cognitive performance. In a rodent model, EE is used successfully as a therapy following traumatic brain injury (TBI) to reduce functional deficits in motor function, spatial memory, and learning. The objective of this work is to exploit the benefits of EE to identify training mechanisms that can be applied to healthy adults to enhance cognitive performance and provide neuroprotection. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment explored EE as a neuroprotective strategy against cognitive deficits induced by traumatic neurological insults. Adult male rats were placed in an enriched environment for 15 days before medial prefrontal cortex injury via controlled cortical impact. Animals were behaviorally tested to assess memory, anxiety, and sensory neglect. Lesion-induced deficits in spatial memory were significantly attenuated in EE rats. In addition, sensory neglect was reduced in EE rats relative to non-enriched animals. The second experiment was aimed at identifying a specific mode of EE that could be realistically applied to healthy human adults to improve cognitive performance. Motor skills training (MST) is a specific form of exercise that offers neurological benefits including synaptogenesis, cerebellar angiogenesis, motor cortex strengthening and reorganization, and hippocampal neurogenesis. Adult male rats were trained for four weeks then behaviorally tested to assess memory, anxiety, and exploratory behavior. MST significantly improved subsequent performance on tasks of spatial memory. MST also reduced anxiety-like behavior. Both EE and MST experiments provide behavioral data to support non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical training techniques that provide numerous functional benefits. Various biomarkers of stress, plasticity and inflammation were explored as potential mechanisms of neuroprotection and cognitive enhancement; however no candidate proteins were identified. Future work is necessary to identify and understand target mechanisms that can lead to functional improvements. This work provides simple, inexpensive training solutions to both military and civilian populations that can be used to lessen the severity of TBI in populations at increased risk of injury due to occupational hazards.

Support the health, well-being, and quality of life of older adults! Here’s the ideal resource for students who are preparing to work with older adults. This text discusses the complexity of the aging experience, the science that contributes to positive aging, and the specific considerations that occupational therapy practitioners must bring to their efforts to support older adults. You’ll find descriptions of the normal aging process, discussions of how health and social factors can impact your clients’ ability to participate in valued occupations, and guidance on how to develop occupation-based strategies for maximizing their well-being.

Developmental Psychopathology, Second Edition, contains in three volumes the most complete and current research on every aspect of developmental psychopathology. This seminal reference work features contributions from national and international expert researchers and clinicians who bring together an array of interdisciplinary work to ascertain how multiple levels of analysis may influence individual differences, the continuity or discontinuity of patterns and the pathways by which the same developmental outcomes may be achieved. This volume addresses theoretical perspectives and methodological.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a significant source of death and permanent disability, contributing to nearly one-third of all injury related deaths in the United States and exacting a profound personal and economic toll. Despite the increased resources that have recently been brought to bear to improve our understanding of TBI, the developme