Enriched and Deprived Sensory Experience Induces Structural Changes and Rewires Connectivity during the Postnatal Development of the Brain

Figure 2

Schematic representation of enriched environment effects on dark-reared rats: motor stimulation, somatosensory stimulation, and visual deprivation caused by dark rearing. We have seen the effects on the astrocyte density of the visual cortex, where enrichment completed with exercise (DR-EE-Ex) can help to recover the loss of population caused by dark rearing (DR), reaching even higher level astrocyte density than the control group. And dark rearing with enriched environment (DR-EE) without running wheel shows similar values to DR group (adapted from results of [40]).