Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Biological Research For Nursing
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Briones, T. L.
Right arrow Articles by Metzger, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Briones, T. L.
Right arrow Articles by Metzger, B.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Effects of Environment on Enhancing Functional Plasticity following Cerebral Ischemia

Tess L. Briones, PhD, RN

Barbara Therrien, PhD, RN, FAAN

Bonnie Metzger, PhD, RN, FAAN

Given the brain’s capacity to recover from injury, plasticity may be enhanced following cerebral ischemia through environmental manipulation. Thus, the purpose of this study was to (1) determine the effects of early exposure to an enriched environment following ischemia on functional plasticity and (2) examine the relationship between morphological and behavioral plasticity. Adult female rats (n = 38) were divided into ischemia and control groups. Each group was further randomized to either standard (SC) or enriched conditions (EC). After 4 days of environmental exposure, rats were tested for 6 days in the water maze. Control and ischemia rats exposed to EC have increased total dendritic length (P < 0.05) as well as increased number of dendritic segments in the apical (P < 0.05) region of the hippocampal area compared to those housed in SC; furthermore, increased dendritic spine density in the apical (P < 0.05) region was also seen. Behavioral testing showed that ischemia rats exposed to SC have longer swim latencies (P < 0.05) and greater directional heading errors (P < 0.05) than ischemic rats exposed to EC; the latter group performed similar to controls. It is concluded that EC may be a potentially useful therapy in the recovery of spatial memory impairments seen after ischemia.

Key Words: Environment • cerebral ischemia • brain plasticity • dendrites • spine density

Biological Research For Nursing, Vol. 1, No. 4, 299-309 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/109980040000100406
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Biol Res NursHome page
M. M. Heitkemper and E. F. Bond
State of Nursing Science: On the Edge
Biol Res Nurs, January 1, 2003; 4(3): 151 - 162.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 NeurologyHome page
S. Faverjon, D. C. Silveira, D. D. Fu, B. H. Cha, C. Akman, Y. Hu, and G. L. Holmes
Beneficial effects of enriched environment following status epilepticus in immature rats
Neurology, November 12, 2002; 59(9): 1356 - 1364.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]