Review: Environmental enrichment and brain repair: harnessing the therapeutic effects of cognitive stimulation and physical activity to enhance experience‐dependent plasticity

Abstract

Environmental enrichment (EE) increases levels of novelty and complexity, inducing enhanced sensory, cognitive and motor stimulation. In wild-type rodents, EE has been found to have a range of effects, such as enhancing experience-dependent cellular plasticity and cognitive performance, relative to standard-housed controls. Whilst environmental enrichment is of course a relative term, dependent on the nature of control environmental conditions, epidemiological studies suggest that EE has direct clinical relevance to a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. EE has been demonstrated to induce beneficial effects in animal models of a wide variety of brain disorders. The first evidence of beneficial effects of EE in a genetically targeted animal model was generated using Huntington's disease transgenic mice. Subsequent studies found that EE was also therapeutic in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, consistent with epidemiological studies of relevant environmental modifiers. EE has also been found to ameliorate behavioural, cellular and molecular deficits in animal models of various neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Parkinson's disease, stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, depression, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. This review will focus on the effects of EE observed in animal models of neurodegenerative brain diseases, at molecular, cellular and behavioural levels. The proposal that EE may act synergistically with other approaches, such as drug and cell therapies, to facilitate brain repair will be discussed. I will also discuss the therapeutic potential of 'enviromimetics', drugs which mimic or enhance the therapeutic effects of cognitive activity and physical exercise, for both neuroprotection and brain repair.

Potential of Environmental Enrichment to Prevent Transgenerational Effects of Paternal Trauma

“…EE is a non-invasive and natural paradigm that increases the level of sensory, cognitive, and motor stimulation and promotes brain plasticity. It has been used to restore hippocampal integrity after chronic stress (Hutchinson et al, 2012) and may have some potential to counteract symptoms of psychopathologies and neurodegenerative diseases (Hannan, 2014;Nithianantharajah and Hannan, 2006). Our findings demonstrate that EE can reverse the effects of early traumatic stress.…”

Reta a Tu Mente, Desafía a Tu Cerebro: Complejidad Ambiental Y Salud Cerebral

“…Se considera que estos modelos pueden tener relevancia clínica en el estudio de diferentes trastornos mentales (depresión, esquizofrenia, autismo…) y neurodegenerativos (enfermedad de Alzheimer, enfermedad de Parkinson, enfermedad de Huntington…) (Hannan, 2014).…”

“…El modelo de enriquecimiento ambiental se basa en proporcionar una elevada estimulación a nivel cognitivo, físico, social y somato-sensorial (Redolat & Mesa-Gresa, 2012), de modo que se incrementan los niveles de complejidad y novedad al que se ven expuestos los animales (Hannan, 2014). En una revisión en la que se incluyeron experimentos realizados en roedores en ambientes enriquecidos, Shors, Olson, Bates, Seluy and Alderman (2014) concluyeron que aquellos animales que se implicaban en tareas más desafiantes y novedosas fueron los que posteriormente mostraron un incremento más significativo de la neurogénesis.…”

“…(Mc Donough et al, 2015;Salthouse, 2016). También se ha planteado la necesidad de realizar investigaciones longitudinales ya que conocemos muy poco acerca de cómo los ambientes complejos influyen en diferentes periodos del ciclo vital (Hannan, 2014).…”

Environmental Modulations of the Number of Midbrain Dopamine Neurons in Adult Mice

“…EE has been used extensively to induce therapeutic effects and enhance brain repair in various animal models of brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's disease 26 .…”