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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Environmental enrichment may protect against neural and behavioural damage caused by withdrawal from chronic alcohol intake

Full text
Author(s):
Nobre, Manoel Jorge
Total Authors: 1
Document type: Journal article
Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROSCIENCE; v. 55, p. 15-27, DEC 2016.
Web of Science Citations: 3
Abstract

Exposure to stress and prolonged exposure to alcohol leads to neuronal damages in several brain regions, being the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) one of the most affected. These changes presumably reduce the ability of the organism to cope with these stimuli and may underlie a series of maladaptive behaviours among which include drug addiction and withdrawal. Drug-addicted individuals show a pattern of behavior similar to patients with lesions of the mPFC. This impairment in the decision-making could be one of the mechanisms responsible for the transition from the casual to compulsive drug use. The environmental enrichment (EE) has a protective effect on the neural and cognitive impairments induced by psychoactive drugs, including ethyl alcohol. The present study aims to determine the influence of withdrawal from intermittent long-term alcohol exposure on alcohol preference, emotional reactivity and neural aspects of early isolated or grouped reared rats kept under standard or complex environments and the influence of social isolation on these measures, as well. Our results point out new insights on this matter showing that the EE can attenuate the adverse effects of withdrawal and social isolation on rat's behavior. This effect is probably due to its protective action on the mPFC integrity, including the cingulate area 1 (Cg1), and the prelimbic (PrL) and infralimbic cortex (IL), what could account for the absence of changes in the emotional reactivity in EE alcohol withdrawal rats. We argue that morphological changes at these cortical levels can afford the emotional, cognitive and behavioural dysregulations verified following withdrawal from chronic alcohol intake. (C) 2016 ISDN. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 10/15157-4 - Trait anxiety and environmental enrichment as determining factors on the development and functioning of the reward and aversion circuitry in rats made dependent on alcohol or morphine
Grantee:Manoel Jorge Nobre Do Espirito Santo
Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
FAPESP's process: 13/10834-6 - Changes on cortical and sub-cortical physiology in alcohol-dependent rats and their influence on trait anxiety, motivational aspects and context-induced tolerance
Grantee:Manoel Jorge Nobre Do Espirito Santo
Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants