High Resolution MRI of Enriched Environment Induced Structural Brain Changes

Ory Levy¹, Daniel M. Michaelson¹, Yaniv Assaf¹

One suggested preventive approach to white matter loss especially in Alzheimer's disease is neurogenesis. We examined the paradigm of neurogenesis induction by environmental enrichment (EN). Twelve C57BL/6J mice at the age of weaning were divided into two groups (control and enrichment). The enriched mice were kept 4 months in enrichment cages. All mice were scanned in a 7T magnet using DTI protocol. Our results showed that DTI revealed differences in known areas (the hippocampus) and added insight by pointing out more areas: the corpus callosum and the thalamus in which significant differences were found to exist after EN.