ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2021
Effect of Environmental Enrichment on the Brain and on Learning and Cognition by Animals.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Performance of sheep and goats in a delay of gratification task.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- Sensory Deprivation and the Brain: Neurobiological Mechanisms, Psychological Effects, and Clinical Implications.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Moving hens into cages affects cognitive performance, extinction learning and motivation for rewards.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2026Article
- Factors Influencing Cage Escape Behavior in a Migrating Passerine at a Stop-Over Site.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Human ostension enhances attentiveness but not performance in domestic pigs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Illuminating the Shadows of Neuroscience: How Curiosity and Courage Redefine Research Models and Mentorship.eNeuro · 2025Article
- Article
- Environmental enrichment reverses prenatal ethanol exposure-induced attention-deficits in rats.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Effects of the HEP® (Homeostasis-Enrichment-Plasticity) Approach in preterm infants with increased developmental risk: a randomized controlled study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of physical environmental enrichment to improve animal welfare-related outcomes in indoor cattle.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2025Review
- Article
- Perceptual learning and neural correlates of virtual navigation in subjective cognitive decline: A pilot study.iScience · 2024Article
- Looks like home: numerosity, but not spatial frequency guides preference in zebrafish larvae (Danio rerio).Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Impact of altered environment and early postnatal methamphetamine exposure on serotonin levels in the rat hippocampus during adolescence.Laboratory animal research · 2024Article
- Article
- Making the most of life: environmental choice during rearing enhances the ability of laying hens to take opportunities.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2024Article
- A bibliometric analysis of studies on environmental enrichment spanning 1967-2024: patterns and trends over the years.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Unraveling the Thread of Aphasia Rehabilitation: A Translational Cognitive Perspective.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Environmental change or choice during early rearing improves behavioural adaptability in laying hen chicks.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The systemic effects of the enriched environment on the conditioned fear reaction.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The humane treatment of animals suggests that they should be housed in an environment that is rich in stimulation and allows for varied activities. However, even if one's main concern is an accurate assessment of their learning and cognitive abilities, housing them in an enriched environment can have an important effect on the assessment of those abilities. Research has found that the development of the brain of animals is significantly affected by the environment in which they live. Not surprisingly, their ability to learn both simple and complex tasks is affected by even modest time spent in an enriched environment. In particular, animals that are housed in an enriched environment are less impulsive and make more optimal choices than animals housed in isolation. Even the way that they judge the passage of time is affected by their housing conditions. Some researchers have even suggested that exposing animals to an enriched environment can make them more "optimistic" in how they treat ambiguous stimuli. Whether that behavioral effect reflects the subtlety of differences in optimism/pessimism or something simpler, like differences in motivation, incentive, discriminability, or neophobia, it is clear that the conditions of housing can have an important effect on the learning and cognition of animals.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.