Therapeutic and protective effect of environmental enrichment against psychogenic and neurogenic stress

The impact of early postnatal environmental enrichment on maternal care and offspring behaviour following weaning

“…This is in contrast to some (Fox et al 2006;Baldini et al 2013), but not all studies (Magalhaes et al 2008;Magalhaes et al 2007). However, previous studies applied enrichment not only during lactation, but mostly in combination with gestational exposure.…”

“…Despite a general positive connotation of enrichment (Fox et al 2006), inconsistent presentation of stimuli during the early postnatal period can be detrimental to the animal (Escorihuela et al 1994(Escorihuela et al 1994. Handling procedures include a separation from the mother making the maternal behaviour, which is essentially a mother-pup interaction, an important variable in this paradigm.…”

Differential effects of environmental enrichment and isolation housing on the hormonal and neurochemical responses to stress in the prefrontal cortex of the adult rat: relationship to working and emotional memories

“…These stress responses can be modulated by environmental conditions (Szyf et al 2008). Animals reared in environmental enrichment conditions (EC) show a lower reactivity to different stressors compared to standard or isolation conditions (Fox et al 2006;Segovia et al 2009). In fact, EC animals show lower anxiety levels (Fernández-Teruel et al 1997;Sztainberg et al 2010), a faster habituation to a novel environment (Zimmermann et al 2001;Schrijver et al 2002;Segovia et al 2008a) and a better recovery from psychosocial stress (Schloesser et al 2010;Lehmann and Herkenham 2011).…”

The anxiolytic effect of environmental enrichment is mediated via amygdalar CRF receptor type 1

“…Animals maintained under enriched conditions have been shown to express reduced levels of emotionalityrelated measurements such as defecation and freezing, less stereotyped behaviors and reduced anxiety levels. 3 An enriched environment is a combination of complex inanimate and social stimulation 4 and generally consists of housing conditions that facilitate enhanced sensory, cognitive, motor and social stimulation relative to standard housing conditions (SC) that severely restrict natural behavior and the animal's control over its environment. Recent studies have shown that investigations of gene-environment interactions might reveal molecular targets for the development of therapeutic agents that mimic or enhance the beneficial effects of environmental stimulation.…”