First Name:
Dale
Last Name:
Keller
Major Department:
Cell and Molecular Biology
Thesis Director:
Mark Zrull
Date of Thesis:
Dec 2013
The effect of a history of environmental enrichment (EE) and acute exposures to EE on neuronal activation in basolateral amygdala (BLA) of young Long-Evans rats was examined. c-fos, an immediate early gene (IEG), was used to measure active neurons in the BLA. Specifically, the c-fos protein, which is the product of the c-fos IEG that is upregulated when neurons become active, was used as a marker of neuronal activation in this study. During adolescence, rats were either exposed to a history of EE sessions or had no history of EE; prior to sacrifice rats from each group either did or did not have an acute exposure to EE. Acute EE exposure resulted in an increased amount of c-fos activation in BLA neurons (p < .05), and a history of EE suppressed c-fos activation in BLA neurons (p < .05). Interestingly, the history of EE and acute EE exposure variables interacted to have a statistically significant effect on BLA neuronal activation (p < 0.05). It can be concluded that acute stimulation through exposure to an enrichment paradigm and a history of EE sessions play both direct roles and intertwining roles upon activation of BLA neurons.