Neuroplasticity study: Rosenzweig, Bennett and Diamond

Question 1

What was the aim of this study?

Answer 1

To see if environmental factors such as rich or impoverished (poor) environments had an affect on the development of neurons in the cerebral cortex

Question 2

What was the procedure in this study?

Answer 2

• 3 male rats from a common litter randomly allocated to one of three environments
• Control condition: 3 rats in a cage
• Impoverished condition: Each rat had an individual cage (lacked toys and the maze)
• Enriched condition: Placed 10-12 rats in a cage containing different stimulus objects to play with
• All conditions had free access to food and water
• Rats spent 30-60 days in their allocated cages before being killed

Question 3

What were the findings in this study?

Answer 3

• Anatomy of the brain was different in the enriched environment compared to the impoverished condition
• Increased thickness and a higher weight of the cortex in the enriched condition compared to the impoverished condition
• Enriched condition the rats developed greater activity in the neurons in the cerebral cortex

Question 4

What were the conclusions from this study?

Answer 4

• Human brain should be affected by environmental factors such as intellectual stimulation (motivating people) and social stimulation (interacting with others/toys)
• It is now known that poverty is is a great risk in childrens cognitive development and its linked to poor nutrition, lack of access to good education and poor health