Sensory experience determines enrichment-induced plasticity in rat auditory cortex

Our previous studies demonstrated that only a few days of housing in an enriched environment increases response strength and paired-pulse depression in the auditory cortex of awake and anesthetized rats [Engineer, N.D., Percaccio, C.R., Pandya, P.K., Moucha, R., Rathbun, D.L., Kilgard, M.P., 2004. Environmental enrichment improves response strength, threshold, selectivity, and latency of auditory cortex neurons. J Neurophysiol. 92, 73–82 and Percaccio, C.R., Engineer, N.D., Pruette, A.L., Pandya, P.K., Moucha, R., Rathbun, D.L., Kilgard, M.P., 2005. Environmental enrichment increases paired-pulse depression in rat auditory cortex. J Neurophysiol. 94, 3590–3600]. Multiple environmental and neurochemical factors likely contribute to the expression of this plasticity. In the current study, we examined the contribution of social stimulation, exercise, auditory exposure, and cholinergic modulation to enrichment-induced plasticity. We recorded epidural evoked potentials from awake rats in response to tone pairs and noise bursts. Auditory evoked responses were not altered by social stimulation or exercise. Rats that could hear the enriched environment, but not interact with it, exhibited enhanced responses to tones and increased paired-pulse depression. The degree to which enrichment increased response strength and forward masking was not reduced after a ventricular injection of 192 IgG-saporin. These results indicate that rich auditory experience stimulates physiological plasticity in the auditory cortex, despite persistent deficits in cholinergic activity. This conclusion may be beneficial to clinical populations with sensory gating and cholinergic abnormalities, including individuals with autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease.