Environmental enrichment enhances spatial cognition in rats by reducing thigmotaxis (wall hugging) during testing
Rats, Rattus norvegicus, housed with [`]environmental enrichment’ do better in tests of spatial cognition than rats housed in barren cages. The leading hypothesis is that exposure to [`]social and inanimate complexity’ leads to better cognitive-processing abilities, which directly enhances performance in a spatial task. However, enrichment is associated with reduced stress responses and anxiety in […]
Sex differences, or not, in spatial cognition in albino rats: acute stress is the key
Male rats, Rattus norvegicus, typically outperform females in tests of spatial cognition. However, as stress affects cognition differently in the two sexes, performance differences may be an artefact of stress. Rats face at least two sources of stress during an experiment: the test situation (acute) and housing conditions (chronic, e.g. isolation). We used a task […]