Effects of Complex Environment and Blindness on Rat Brain

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Abstract
Early blindness of peripheral origin has been shown to influence the chemistry and anatomy of the brain.3-5,10,17 Results of some of our experiments have suggested that the cerebral effects of blinding might be overcome, in part at least, by suitable programs of stimulation and training. These experiments—based on studies with six different strains of rats and employing a number of replications—heve consistently shown that significant changes can be induced in the biochemistry and morphology of the brain of the rat by varying the complexity of the environment.7,15,16 The main cerebral effects of differential environment are these: (1) The cortical weight of animals raised from weaning in an enriched environment (the Environmental Complexity and Training—ECT— Group) is about 5% greater than that of littermate animals raised in an impoverished environment (the Isolated Control— IC—Group). There is little difference between groups in the weight of the rest of the brain.