Impacto del enriquecimiento ambiental sobre el desarrollo cerebral: interacciones sociales, nutricionales y sensoriales / Impact of the enviromental enrichment upon the cerebral development: social, nutritional and sensorial interaction

RESUMO

The influence of environmental enrichment during the course of early postantal development has been extensively studied. Relatively short periods of simulation, during lactation may be associated with important benefits in functional and behavioral capacities. Furthermore many authors support the idea that evolution is an adaptative response of living material to the enriched conditions present in the habitat. Recently, environmental stimulation has been reported to aid recovery from behavioral deficits associated with early post-natal malnutrition and offer similar prospects for brain lesions, some birth defects and related malformations. It has become evident in recent years that the developing cerebral cortex is sculptured by a highly sophysticated program of neuronal reorganization, influenced by social, cultural and environmental cues. These observations raise a number of questions to both, basic scientists and neurologists, as What types of changes occur in the brain?. What is the time course of these events?. Perhaps most important, what are the functional implications of cortical reorganizations?. The porpuse of this review is to summarize the evidence, already available in an effort to improve the chances of recovering brain health after perinatal malnutrition, social deprivation or sensorial impairement. According to our results, sensorial enrichment account for a significant acceleration in the dendrogenesis of basal dentritic field in pups that were simultaneously malnourished; nutritional-environmental interactions. The mechanisms through which environment induce modifications in morphology and behaviour have not been elucidated. The most obvious prediction is that environmental influences are probably transduced as chemical expressions in the internal milieu