A relatively brief exposure to environmental enrichment after experimental traumatic brain injury confers long-term cognitive benefits

It is well established that a relatively brief exposure to environmental enrichment (EE) enhances motor and cognitive performance after experimental traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it is not known whether the benefits can be sustained after EE is discontinued. To address this important rehabilitation-relevant concern, anesthetized rats received a controlled cortical impact (CCI) or sham injury, and for phase 1 of the experiment were randomly assigned to either 3 weeks of EE or standard (STD) housing. Neurobehavioral outcome was assessed by established motor and cognitive tests on postoperative days 1-5 and 14-18, respectively. Beam-balance and spatial learning were facilitated in the TBI + EE more than the TBI + STD group (p