Effect of differential rearing on photic evoked potentials and brightness discrimination in the albino rat

✍ Scribed by H. P. Edwards; W. F. Barry; J. O. Wyspianski

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1969
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 394 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-1630
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.420020303

✦ Synopsis

In two related experiments, albino rats were split into enriched and impoverished groups at weaning, and were reared for two months in differential environments, one group in a large cage containing toys, the other in individual cages. Photic evoked potentials were obtained from all subjects both at weaning and after differential rearing, and mean group latencies were compared. At the end of the experimental period, all subjects were tested on a black-white brightness discrimination. It was found that although the groups did not differ in evoked potential latency at weaning, after differential rearing there were significant latency differences. The enriched group developed shorter latencies than the impoverished group. At the end of the experiment, the enriched group obtained superior scores on a brightness discrimination test. It was concluded that differential rearing has measurable effects on certain aspects of the albino rat's behavior and physiology. averaged evoked responses discrimination learning vironment HEN ANIMALS whose early experience is impover-w ished are compared with those whose early experience has been enriched, the former are generally found to be inferior problem-solvers (Forgays &