Abstract
The author first considers how plasticity of the brain in response to differential experience was discovered in research with laboratory rats around 1960. Similar effects were then found in other species and in adults as well as in young animals. Animal research soon followed on effects of enriched experience as therapy for various kinds of brain dysfunction. Certain effects of environment or experience on brain development or rehabilitation are specific to particular aspects of brain growth, to kinds of disability, and to kinds of experience. Relations between animal research and some human therapies are considered.
EFFECTS OF ANIMAL experience on brain and behavior have been studied increasingly in the last four decades, and some appear to be relevant to human rehabilitation and training. In this article, I will review some landmarks in animal research, as well as taking up some related studies with children, and noting some of the complexities in both fields. In other contexts, I have stressed the importance of life-long brain plasticity for rehabilitation beyond the childhood years1-3, but here I focus on infancy and childhood when brain plasticity is greatest. Several reviews of animal research on effects of differential environments on brain and behavior have appeared recently3-7, so only selected examples will be included here.