The Effects of Environmental Enrichment on the Inflexible Behaviors of Autism
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Blankemeyer, Kristin C.
Date Issued
May 11, 2010
Abstract
Many autism research studies have been devoted to studying social interaction and the ability to communicate but relatively few have been dedicated to researching restricted and ritualistic behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the environment on the ability to accomplish a reversal learning task, using an animal model of autism. Twelve Sprague-Dawley rats were prenatally exposed to sodium valproate (VPA), and twelve rats were prenatally exposed to saline. For each exposure group, half of the rats were housed in standard laboratory cages and the other half inhabited enriched environments, with various novel objects introduced twice weekly. All rats were trained until they acquired the behavior of turning down the right-arm of a T-maze to receive a food reinforcer. The reversal learning task occurred when the food reinforcer was placed down the left-arm of the T-maze. Latency and number of errors were recorded for each rat. Results showed that VPA rats had significantly greater latency to retrieve the reinforcer than the control group, regardless of environmental condition. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.
Honors
Psychology, 2010
First Reader(s)
Clark, Rodney D.
Other Reader(s)
Conklin, Sarah M.
Department
Neuroscience
Type of Publication
Senior Project Paper
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Name
2009_10_Blankemeyer_Effects.pdf
Size
1.86 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
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