Environmental enrichment facilitates amygdala kindling but reduces kindling-induced fear in male rats (2004)

Young, N. A., Wintink, A. J., Kalynchuk, L. E.

Abstract

Sixty male rats were housed either in an enriched environment or in isolation, starting immediately after weaning. As adults, they were subjected to either 50 amygdala-kindling stimulations or sham stimulations, followed by testing in an unfamiliar open field. The kindled-enriched rats acquired the kindled state more quickly than did the kindled-isolated rats, but they also showed less fear in the open field than did the kindled-isolated rats. Environmental enrichment has differential effects on kindling acquisition and its behavioral consequences.