Environmental Enrichment and Functional Plasticity in the Hippocampus – An Update on the Mechanisms Involved

Enriched environment (EE) exposure is beneficial to nervous system function on many levels, in particular for activity-dependent synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis. Most prominently, EE can improve cognitive functions, such as learning and memory, in rodents, but the physiological processes and molecular mechanisms are still not fully clarified, limiting the translational potential of the preclinical studies. The present chapter provides an update of the most recent evidence of EE-related functional changes in synaptic and cellular properties of CA1 and dentate gyrus hippocampal neurons with in vivo and ex vivo electrophysiological approaches. After a brief discussion on how the research on EE changed in the last years, we present a new vision on the interpretation of the EE findings and how relevant studies contributed to building the current knowledge. Finally, we describe recent electrophysiological research in rodents that explored the downstream molecular mechanisms underlying the enhancement of synaptic plasticity associated with exposure on EE.