Significantly increased hippocampal LTP activity was only recorded in the enriched-environment mice, possibly because exploring novel objects provided both physical exercise and cognitivestimulation, researchers said.
Early environmental enrichments that include better nutrition, more exercise and cognitivestimulation from ages 3 to 5 both improves brain functioning at age 11 and also reduces crime at age 23 by 35%.
Dr Roi Cohen Kadosh, study author from the department of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford, said the noise stimulation group showed improvements in cognitive and brain functions compared with the control group.
Cohen Kadosh added that it was important to identify any downsides of this and other similar forms of transcranial electrical stimulation to ensure that boosting one cognitive ability did not lead to damage in another.