ArticlePloS one2019
Environmental enrichment effects after early stress on behavior and functional brain networks in adult rats.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- "The wrong tools for the right job": a critical meta-analysis of traditional tests to assess behavioural impacts of maternal separation.Psychopharmacology · 2023Pooled it
- Serotonin deficiency caused by inactivation of Tph2 in mice leads to widespread sex-dependent changes in cerebral oxidative metabolic activity.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Environmental enrichment as an intervention to prevent behavioral and neurobiological consequences of maternal separation in rodents: a scope review.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Environmental enrichment reverses ELS-induced visceral pain and depression through a prefrontal-limbic circuit involving CB1Rs.Communications biology · 2026Article
- The Potential Anti Stress-like Properties of Escitalopram on Improvement of Spatial Memory in Rats Subjected to Predictable and Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress.Advanced biomedical research · 2026Article
- Relationship between enriched environment and neurodegeneration: a review from mechanism to therapy.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Review
- A bibliometric analysis of studies on environmental enrichment spanning 1967-2024: patterns and trends over the years.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Maintaining a Dynamic Brain: A Review of Empirical Findings Describing the Roles of Exercise, Learning, and Environmental Enrichment in Neuroplasticity from 2017-2023.Brain plasticity (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Review
- Review
- Article
- Providing Environmental Enrichment without Altering Behavior in Male and Female Wistar Rats (Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2022Article
- Environmental enrichment improves lifelong persistent behavioral and epigenetic changes induced by early-life stress.Journal of psychiatric research · 2021Article
- Differential impact of stress and environmental enrichment on corticolimbic circuits.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2020Review
- Sex-Specific Effects of Early Life Stress on Brain Mitochondrial Function, Monoamine Levels and Neuroinflammation.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- The Inflamed Brain in Schizophrenia: The Convergence of Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors That Lead to Uncontrolled Neuroinflammation.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2020Review
- Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early life stress is associated with long-term and pervasive adverse effects on neuroendocrine development, affecting normal cognitive and emotional development. Experimental manipulations like environmental enrichment (EE) may potentially reverse the effects of early life stress induced by maternal separation (MS) paradigm in rodents. However, the functional brain networks involved in the effects of EE after prolonged exposure to MS have not yet been investigated. In order to evaluate possible changes in brain functional connectivity induced by EE after MS, quantitative cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) histochemistry was applied to determine regional brain oxidative metabolism in adult male rats. Unexpectedly, results show that prolonged MS during the entire weaning period did not cause any detrimental effects on spatial learning and memory, including depressive-like behavior evaluated in the forced-swim test, and decreased anxiety-like behavior. However, EE seemed to alter anxiety- and depression-like behaviors in both control and MS groups, but improved spatial memory in the latter groups. Analysis of brain CCO activity showed significantly lower metabolic capacity in most brain regions selected in EE groups probably associated with chronic stress, but no effects of MS on brain metabolic capacity. In addition, principal component analysis of CCO activity revealed increased large-scale functional brain connectivity comprising at least three main networks affected by EE in both MS and control groups. Moreover, EE induced a pattern of functional brain connectivity associated with stress and anxiety-like behavior as compared with non-enriched groups. In conclusion, EE had differential effects on cognition and emotional behavior irrespective of exposure to MS. In view of the remarkable effects of EE on brain function and behavior, implementation of rodent housing conditions should be optimized by evaluating the balance between scientific validity and animal welfare.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.