Experience modulates brain plasticity in adult primates

经验调节成年灵长类动物的大脑可塑性

基本信息

批准号：
6793778
负责人：
YEVGENIA KOZOROVITSKIY
金额：
$ 4.28万
依托单位：
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2004
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2004-03-01 至 2008-02-29
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Prior research in rodents suggests that living without exposure to environmental complexity leads to physiological changes in the brain that carry heavy functional costs. In comparison to rats, non-human primates are characterized by complex social behavior and cognitive capacity. They interact with their environment in intricate ways and are therefore likely to have greater requirements with respect to environment for optimal functioning. Housing monkeys in standard laboratory cages may have an even greater negative impact on their brain than the decreased neuronal survival shown by my prior work in rats. Our laboratory has built a new marmoset facility and my general intent for the next several years is to characterize experiential influences on neurogenesis and dendritic architecture in adult marmosets. The proposed experiments will correlate several indices of brain plasticity in this species with the level of environmental complexity and determine whether the effect is graded. If living in an enriched environment alters brain structure in the adult marmoset, then individual variables responsible for the effect will be identified. This work will begin to characterize the effects of living in different environments on structural plasticity in adult primates, and it will create the basis for studying animals in laboratory conditions that are free of the potential confounds of variable housing.

描述（由申请人提供）：先前对啮齿类动物的研究表明，生活在不接触复杂环境的情况下会导致大脑发生生理变化，从而带来沉重的功能损失。与老鼠相比，非人类灵长类动物的特点是复杂的社会行为和认知能力。他们以复杂的方式与环境互动，因此可能对环境有更高的要求，以实现最佳功能。将猴子关在标准实验室笼子里可能会对它们的大脑产生比我之前在老鼠身上的研究显示的神经元存活率下降更大的负面影响。我们的实验室建立了一个新的狨猴设施，我未来几年的总体目标是表征经验对成年狨猴神经发生和树突结构的影响。拟议的实验将把该物种的大脑可塑性的几个指数与环境复杂性水平相关联，并确定效果是否分级。如果生活在丰富的环境中改变了成年狨猴的大脑结构，那么导致这种影响的个体变量就会被识别出来。这项工作将开始描述生活在不同环境中对成年灵长类动物结构可塑性的影响，并将为在实验室条件下研究动物奠定基础，避免可变住房的潜在混乱。