Causes of EC-IC Brain Differences

Abstract

Enriched and impoverished environments are demonstrably different in several respects. Likewise, subjects with experience in differential environments are different in several types of behavioral measures. Of the many environmental characteristics manipulated as independent variables, and the many subject characteristics shown to be altered by enriched and impoverished laboratory environments, there are few that have not been singled out at one time or another and proposed to be the critical difference between EC and IC animals, and therefore the cause of the brain changes that result from differential experience. This section will examine several of the possibilities that have been suggested, examining the data relevant to each.