Our researchers should be able to apply and test this in survivors. This is what Dr. Corbett has been saying for years.
Enrich your environment.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0053888
Abstract
Environmental
enrichment of laboratory animals influences brain plasticity,
stimulates neurogenesis, increases neurotrophic factor expression, and
protects against the effects of brain insult. However, these positive
effects are not constantly observed, probably because standardized
procedures of environmental enrichment are lacking. Therefore, we
engineered an enriched cage (the Marlau™ cage), which offers: (1)
minimally stressful social interactions; (2) increased voluntary
exercise; (3) multiple entertaining activities; (4) cognitive
stimulation (maze exploration), and (5) novelty (maze configuration
changed three times a week). The maze, which separates food pellet and
water bottle compartments, guarantees cognitive stimulation for all
animals. Compared to rats raised in groups in conventional cages, rats
housed in Marlau™ cages exhibited increased cortical thickness,
hippocampal neurogenesis and hippocampal levels of transcripts encoding
various genes involved in tissue plasticity and remodeling. In addition,
rats housed in Marlau™ cages exhibited better performances in learning
and memory, decreased anxiety-associated behaviors, and better recovery
of basal plasma corticosterone level after acute restraint stress.
Marlau™ cages also insure inter-experiment reproducibility in spatial
learning and brain gene expression assays. Finally, housing rats in
Marlau™ cages after severe
status epilepticus at weaning
prevents the cognitive impairment observed in rats subjected to the same
insult and then housed in conventional cages. By providing a
standardized enriched environment for rodents during housing, the
Marlau™ cage should facilitate the uniformity of environmental
enrichment across laboratories
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