EFFECTS OF PROLONGED VISUAL DEPRIVATION (DARK-REARING) ON THE WEIGHT OF SENSORY CORTEX OF THE RAT.

IN EXP. I, 2 STRAINS OF VISUALLY DEPRIVED, HOODED AND ALBINO RATS AND 2 OF SIGHTED CONTROLS WERE REARED FOR 80 DAYS IN AN IMPOVERISHED ENVIRONMENT. THE VISUALLY DEPRIVED HOODED SS SHOWED NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE WEIGHT OF THE SOMESTHETIC, VISUAL, AND AUDITORY CORTICES RELATIVE TO THE SIGHTED HOODED CONTROLS. THE ALBINOS, ON THE OTHER HAND, SHOWED A SIGNIFICANT DECREASE IN THE WEIGHT OF THE SOMESTHETIC AND AUDITORY CORTICES. IN EXP. II, 4 GROUPS OF RATS WERE REARED FOR 80 DAYS IN AN ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN THE WEIGHT OF THE 3 SENSORY AREAS WERE FOUND BETWEEN THE VISUALLY DEPRIVED AND SIGHTED CONTROLS OF BOTH STRAINS. A BETWEEN-EXPERIMENTS COMPARISON SUGGESTS THAT AN S REARED IN AN ENRICHED ENVIRONMENT APPEARS TO POSSESS A HEAVIER SENSORY CORTEX THAN 1 REARED IN AN IMPOVERISHED ENVIRONMENT. (FRENCH SUMMARY) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)