Environmental Enrichment Increases Paired-pulse Depression in Rat Auditory Cortex

Temporal features are important for the identification of natural sounds. Earlier studies have shown that cortical processing of temporal information can be altered by long-term experience with modulated sounds. In a previous study, we observed that environmental enrichment dramatically increased the response of cortical neurons to single tone and noise burst stimuli in both awake and anesthetized rats. Here, we evaluate how enrichment influences temporal information processing in the auditory cortex. We recorded responses to repeated tones and noise bursts in awake rats using epidural evoked potentials and in anesthetized rats using microelectrodes. Enrichment increased the response of cortical neurons to stimuli presented at slow rates and decreased the response to stimuli presented at fast rates relative to controls. Our observation that enrichment substantially increased response strength and forward masking is consistent with earlier reports that long-term potentiation of cortical synapses is associated with increased paired-pulse depression. Enrichment also increased response synchronization at slow rates and decreased synchronization at fast rates. Paired-pulse depression increased within days of environmental enrichment and was restored to normal levels after return to standard housing conditions. These results are relevant to several clinical disorders characterized by abnormal gating of sensory information, including autism, schizophrenia, and dyslexia.