Do Housing Conditions Influence Learning & Retention of a Working Memory Task?

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请中描述的实验的广泛的长期目标是确定动物生活的环境是否会影响学习和记忆能力。为了实现这些目标，我们提出了两个具体目标。首先，生物体所处环境的独特元素是否会影响学习线索之间空间关系的能力，工作记忆是否会受到这些经验的影响？第二，一旦学习发生，动物生活的环境是否会影响这些记忆在缺乏持续练习的情况下的长期保留？为了评估这些目标，成年大鼠将被安置在各种条件下，这些条件已被证明有助于系统地评估环境对大脑结构，功能和行为的影响。自变量将是动物生活的条件，如社会饲养，锻炼的机会，以及生活在一个经常变化的环境中。在进行10天行为试验之前，将动物在各自条件下圈养30天。依赖性测量将评估参考记忆和工作记忆。随后，受试者将在十天或三十天后测试这些记忆的保留情况。我们的初步数据表明，学习率之间没有明显的差异年轻的动物社会和那些生活在环境复杂的条件。然而，当工作记忆逐渐增加时，生活在更复杂环境中的受试者犯的错误平均比社会化居住的对照组少。从同一个受试者身上收集多种大脑功能的测量结果，将增强我们进行推论的能力，并有助于阐明这些经验如何表达，并最终在成熟的神经系统中得以维持。这项研究是有用的，因为它可能提供额外的见解，不同的经验可能有助于学习和记忆的持久方式。通过更好地了解这些经历如何影响大脑功能，我们可能能够更好地完善策略，以促进健康的发展和长期维持健康的神经系统。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad long-term goals of the experiments described in this application are to determine if the environment an animal lives in can influence learning and memory abilities. To address these goals, we have outlined two specific aims. First, do unique elements of the environment that an organism lives in influence the ability to learn spatial relationships between cues and is working memory influenced by these experiences? Second, once learning has occurred, does the environment an animal lives in influence the long-term retention of these memories in the absence of continued practice? To evaluate these objectives, adult rats will be housed in a variety of conditions that have proven useful in systematically evaluating the effects of the environment on brain structure, function, and behavior. The independent variable will be the conditions an animal live in, such as social rearing, an opportunity to exercise, and living in an environment that changes frequently. Animals will be housed in their respective condition for a period of thirty-days prior to ten-days of behavioral testing. The dependent measure will assess both reference- and working-memory. Subsequently, subjects will be tested for the retention of these memories ten- or thirty-days later. Our preliminary data suggest that learning rates are not appreciably different between young animals housed socially and those living in environmentally complex conditions. However, when working memory is incrementally increased, subjects living in a more complex environment commit fewer errors, on average, than socially housed controls. Collecting multiple measures of brain function from the same subject will enhance our ability to draw inferences and offers to shed light on how such experiences might be expressed, and ultimately maintained in the mature nervous system. This research is useful in that it potentially offers additional insight as to how different experiences might contribute to both the learning and retention of memories in an enduring manner. By better understanding how such experiences influence brain function, we might be able to better refine strategies to promote healthy development and long-term maintenance of a healthy nervous system.