A DATA-DRIVEN OPINION: THE ROLE OF LOCOMOTOR ACTIVITY IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT

The environmental enrichment is a widely used experimental setting for improving the cognition in rodents.The improvement in cognition has been attributed to the arousal response, induction of learning, and voluntary exercise, although no consensus has been reached yet.The present study was aimed to investigate whether the presence of objects on the ground alter the locomotion in mice.Archived video recordings of adult BALB/c mice which had been shot for openfield and novel object recognition tests were examined, and total distance moved (cm) and velocity (cm/s) were estimated to assess the locomotor activity.According to the open-field test protocol, there had been no objects in the test apparatus; however, the novel object recognition test had been conducted with two identical objects on the ground (familiarization phase).Total distance moved was found to be similar in both groups which indicates that objects on the explorable area do not alter locomotion.In concordance, the results for velocity were alike non-significant.The locomotor activity in mice was observed to be not affected by the objects which the animals were free to engage in interaction.This result does not refuse the contribution of exercise to cognitive improvement in the environmental enrichment, but it denotes that the benefits of the enrichment should not be merely accredited to increased locomotor activity.