Overstimulation, occipital/somesthetic cerebral cortical depth, and cortical asymmetry in mice.

It was hypothesized on theoretical grounds that sensory multidimensional overstimulation (stress) during development might not yield increased cerebral cortical depth, as has been found for enriched rearing conditions. We found that such overstimuliation in growing mice resulted in a low occipital/somesthetic cortical depth ratio in comparison to EC-stimulated mice (EC, enriched conditions). It is unclear whether this is due to small occipital or large somesthetic cortical depth. Principal-component analytic techniques indicate a complicated interaction during development involving sex, environmental condition, and cortical asymmetry.