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. 2013 Jan 17;8(1):e54811. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054811

Figure 6. Environmental enrichment alters stress-induced c-Fos expression in the forebrain.

Figure 6

The effect of water avoidance stress (30 min) on the cerebral c-Fos expression was examined in mice kept for 9 weeks under standard (SE) or enriched environment (EE). The left column panels (A, C, E, G, I, K, M) show representative micrographs of 9 forebrain regions taken from SE mice while the right column panels (B, D, F, H, J, L, N) depict micrographs of the same brain regions taken from EE mice. Relative to SE animals, EE increased stress-induced c-Fos expression in the granular cell layer of the dentate gyrus (A, B), but decreased it in the CA1 region of the hippocampus (C, D), the central amygdala (E, F) and the infralimbic cortex (M, N). In contrast, EE failed to modify stress-induced c-Fos expression in the CA3 region of the hippocampus (C, D), the basolateral and medial amygdala (E, F, G, H), the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (I, J) and the cingulate cortex (K, L). Abbreviations: BLA  =  Basolateral amygdala; CA1  =  CA1 field of the hippocampus; CA3  =  CA3 field of the hippocampus; CC  =  Cingulate cortex; CeA  =  Central amygdala; DGgl  =  Dentate gyrus, granular cell layer; DGml  =  Dentate gyrus, molecular cell layer; DGpl  =  Dentate gyrus, polymorph cell layer; ILC  =  Infralimbic cortex; MeA  =  Medial Amygdala; PVH  =  Paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus; TT  =  Tenia tecta.