Dendritic length in aged rats' occipital cortex: An environmentally induced response

The present investigation was the first to measure the lengths of dendrictic segments from aged animals in different environments to determine if the rates of retraction that occur with age can be influenced by the external environment. Our results show that the sixth-order segments, which represent the segments most distal to the cell body, are 86% longer in animals which have spent their final 30 days in an enriched environment compared with their littermates from standard laboratory conditions.