In vivo study of left-right differences of the rodent hippocampus

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Though left-right asymmetry of the brain is well known among the general population, the physiological meanings remain unclear. To investigate how animal experience influence on brain asymmetry, we recorded local field potentials of rat hippocampi bilaterally from rat reared in enriched environment (ENR) and those reared in isolated condition (ISO). We found that the power of gamma oscillations tends to be greater in rats reared in ENR than those reared in an ISO. This experience-dependent gamma enhancement is consistently larger in the right hippocampus across subjects, coinciding with a lateralized increase of synaptic density in the right hippocampus. Moreover, interhemispheric coherence in ENR group is significantly elevated at the gamma frequency. These results suggest that ENR rearing sculpts the functional left-right asymmetry of hippocampal circuits by reorganization of synapses.