Rearing Complexity Affects Branching of Dendrites in the Visual Cortex of the Rat

Higher-order dendritic branching is considerably greater in Golgi-stained neurons from the occipital cortex of rats reared in groups in a complex environment than in similar neurons of littermates reared individually in laboratory cages. Littermates reared in pairs in cages have intermediate amounts of branching, while lower-order branching did not appear to be affected by any rearing environment.