Increases in dendritic length in occipital cortex after 4 days of differential housing in weanling rats

Christopher S. Wallace, Valerie L. Kilman, Ginger S. Withers, William T. Greenough*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

81 Scopus citations

Abstract

To assess the capacity for experience to induce rapid alterations in the dendritic fields of cortical neurons, male Long-Evans hooded rats aged 30-31 days were housed in either a complex environment (EC) or an individual cage (IC) for 4 days. The basilar dendrites of layer III pyramidal cells in area 17 of visual cortex were measured in Golgi-stained sections. EC rats exhibited significant increases in total dendritic length and total number of branches. This finding demonstrates that the structural modifications previously reported after 30 days in the complex environment are well underway after only 4 days.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)64-68
Number of pages5
JournalBehavioral and Neural Biology
Volume58
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1992

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physiology

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