Citation

Cheng JP, Shaw KE, Monaco CM, Hoffman AN, Sozda CN, Olsen A, Kline AE. J. Neurotrauma 2012; 29(17): 2684-2688.

Affiliation

University of Pittsburgh, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States; chengjp@upmc.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2012.2560

PMID

22774771

Abstract

It is well established that a relatively brief exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) enhances motor and cognitive performance after experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it is not known whether the benefits can be sustained after EE is discontinued. To address this important rehabilitation-relevant concern, anesthetized rats received a controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham injury and for phase 1 of the experiment were randomly assigned to either three weeks of EE or standard (STD) housing. Neurobehavioral outcome was assessed by established motor and cognitive tests on post-operative days 1-5 and 14-18, respectively. Beam-balance and spatial learning were facilitated in the TBI + EE vs. TBI + STD group (p's < 0.0001). In phase 2 of the experiment, half of the rats in EE were transferred to STD conditions (TBI + EE + STD and Sham + EE + STD), and neurobehavior was re-assessed once per month for 6 months. The TBI + EE and TBI + EE + STD groups performed markedly better in the water maze vs. the TBI + STD group (p's < 0.0001) and did not differ from one another (p = 0.53). These data replicate several studies from our laboratory showing that EE enhances recovery after CCI injury, and extend those findings by demonstrating that the cognitive benefits are maintained for at least 6 months post-rehabilitation. The persistent benefits with this paradigm provide further support for EE as a pre-clinical model of rehabilitation that can be further explored either alone or in combination with potential pharmacotherapies for optimal neurorehabilitation after TBI.

Language: en