ArticlePsychosomatic medicine2014
The effects of environmental enrichment on depressive and anxiety-relevant behaviors in socially isolated prairie voles.
Article in Psychosomatic medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers.
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Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Classical Music on Behavioral and Physiological Stress Markers in Socially Isolated Prairie Voles.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Early life stress-induced depression reveals distinct region-specific modulation of unfolded protein response genes in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of rats.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Early life social isolation stress and pain vulnerability: unraveling neuroimmune mechanisms and central sensitization.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Voluntary exercise is a moderately effective mitigator of chronic social isolation stress in two female rodent models.Physiology & behavior · 2025Article
- Protective effects of exercise on responses to combined social and environmental stress in prairie voles.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Maladaptive cardiac and behavioral reactivity to repeated vicarious stress exposure in socially bonded male prairie vole siblings.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2024Article
- Article
- The influence of long-term housing in enriched environment on behavior of normal rats and subjected to neonatal pro-inflammatory challenge.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Social Isolation: A Narrative Review on the Dangerous Liaison between the Autonomic Nervous System and Inflammation.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- The Molecular Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Alzheimer's Disease.Molecular neurobiology · 2022Review
- The Influence of Environmental Enrichment on Affective and Neural Consequences of Social Isolation Across Development.Affective science · 2022Article
- The differential effects of brief environmental enrichment following social isolation in rats.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Social isolation and oxytocin antagonism increase emotion-related behaviors and heart rate in female prairie voles.Autonomic neuroscience : basic & clinical · 2022Article
- An enriched environment reduces chronic stress-induced visceral pain through modulating microglial activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala.American journal of physiology. Gastrointestinal and liver physiology · 2022Article
- Morphological changes in the basolateral amygdala and behavioral disruptions associated with social isolation.Behavioural brain research · 2022Article
- Effects of Social Isolation on the Development of Anxiety and Depression-Like Behavior in Model Experiments in Animals.Neuroscience and behavioral physiology · 2022Article
- A Possible Anti-anxiety Effect of Appetitive Aggression and a Possible Link to the Work of Donald Winnicott.Scandinavian journal of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychology · 2022Article
- Effect of Environmental Complexity and Stocking Density on Fear and Anxiety in Broiler Chickens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Age-Related Individual Behavioural Characteristics of Adult Wistar Rats.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Differential paraventricular nucleus activation and behavioral responses to social isolation in prairie voles following environmental enrichment with and without physical exercise.Social neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesSocial isolation is associated with depression, anxiety, and negative health outcomes. Environmental enrichment, including environmental and cognitive stimulation with inanimate objects and opportunities for physical exercise, may be an effective strategy to include in treatment paradigms for affective disorders as a function of social isolation. In a rodent model-the socially monogamous prairie vole-we investigated the hypothesis that depression- and anxiety-related behaviors after social isolation would be prevented and remediated with environmental enrichment.
methodsExperiment 1 investigated the preventive effects of environmental enrichment on negative affective behaviors when administered concurrently with social isolation. Experiment 2 investigated the remediating effects of enrichment on negative affective behaviors when administered after a period of isolation. Behaviors were measured in three operational tests: open field, forced swim test (FST), and elevated plus maze.
resultsIn isolated prairie voles, enrichment prevented depression-relevant (immobility in FST, group × housing interaction, p = .049) and anxiety-relevant behaviors (exploration in open field, group × housing interaction, p = .036; exploration in elevated plus maze, group × housing interaction, p = .049). Delayed enrichment also remediated these behaviors in isolated animals (immobility in FST, main effect of housing, p = .001; exploration in open field, main effect of housing, p = .047; exploration in elevated plus maze, main effect of housing, p = .001) and was slightly more effective than physical exercise alone in remediating anxiety-relevant behaviors.
conclusionsThese findings provide insight into the beneficial effects of an enriched environment on depression- and anxiety-relevant behaviors using a translational rodent model of social isolation.
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