Studies of brain weight and RNA content after short periods of exposure to environmental complexity (1970)

Ferchmin, P. E., Eterovic, V. A., Caputto, R.

Abstract

Rats in Environmental Complexity (EC) were compared with litter mates maintained in Impoverished Conditions (IC) for various times. An initial relatively fast onset of the difference between the cerebral weight of the EC and IC rats was observed. This phase was followed by another in which this difference was not statistically significant. The third period was characterized by a slow increase of the difference in cerebral weight of the EC and IC rats. The RNA content per gram of wet tissue was higher in the EC than in the IC animals in the period of fast acquisition of difference in brain weight, but in the successive periods (60 days in total) no definite indications of differences in the RNA/gram of wet tissue were found. The differences of RNA content per cerebrum followed a pattern similar to the differences of cerebral weight. Body and hypophysis weights were higher in IC than in EC animals after 2 days in their respective conditions and throughout the rest of the experiment.