Environmental enrichment requires adult neurogenesis to facilitate the recovery from psychosocial stress

By R. Schloesser, Michael L. Lehmann, Keri Martinowich, Husseini K. Manji, M. Herkenham. 2010

303 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The subgranular zone of the adult hippocampal dentate gyrus contains a pool of neural stem cells that continuously divide and differentiate into functional granule cells. It has been shown that production of new hippocampal neurons is necessary for amelioration of stress-induced behavioral changes by antidepressants in animal models of depression. The survival of newly born hippocampal neurons is decreased by chronic psychosocial stress and increased by exposure to enriched environments. These observations suggest the existence of a link between hippocampal neurogenesis, stress-induced behavioral changes, and the beneficial effects of enriched environment. To show causality, we subjected transgenic mice with conditionally suppressed neurogenesis to psychosocial stress followed by environmental enrichment. First, we showed that repeated social defeat coupled with chronic exposure to an aggressor produces robust and quantifiable indices of submissive and depressive-like behaviors; second, subsequent exposure to an enriched environment led to extinction of the submissive phenotype, while animals exposed to an impoverished environment retained the submissive phenotype; and third, enrichment was not effective in reversing the submissive and depressive-like behaviors in transgenic mice lacking neurogenesis. Our data show two main findings. First, living in an enriched environment is highly effective in extinguishing submissive behavioral traits developed during chronic social stress, and second, these effects are critically dependent on adult neurogenesis, indicating that beneficial behavioral adaptations are dependent on intact adult neurogenesis.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Neuroscience, Social Psychology

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. R. Hen
2. Attila Losonczy
3. Amar Sahay
4. R. Silver
5. N. A. Cayco-Gajic

In Developmental Neuroscience

1. R. Hen
2. Amar Sahay
3. Alexis S. Hill
4. M. Kheirbek
5. Attila Losonczy
6. C. Denny
7. Fred H. Gage
8. Hongjun Song

In Social Psychology

1. R. Hen
2. Amar Sahay

Citations in the corpus

• Human Hippocampal Neurogenesis Persists throughout Aging (2018, neutral): “, 2011) and recover from stress (Schloesser et al., 2010) may depend on adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN), which is reported to decline with aging in nonhuman primates (Leuner et al.”
• Benzodiazepines And The Potential Trophic Effect Of Antidepressants On Dentate Gyrus Cells In Mood Disorders (2014, unknown): “…in anterior and mid DG, and did not differ from any other group in posterior DG. MD*ADT*BZD had fewer NPCs vs.MD*ADT in mid DG. MD*ADT had more NPCs vs. untreatedMD and controls in anterior and mid DG. MD*ADT*BZD and MD*ADT had more mitotic cells in anterior DG vs. controls and untreated-MD.”
• Hippocampal Memory Traces Are Differentially Modulated by Experience, Time, and Adult Neurogenesis (2014, methodology): “Dominant Interaction Dominant interaction was performed as previously described (Schloesser et al., 2010), with the exception that mice were allowed to explore for 30 min, and the first 10 min were later analyzed.”
• Increasing Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis is Sufficient to Reduce Anxiety and Depression-Like Behaviors (2015, methodology): “Elimination of adult-hippocampal neurogenesis has been shown to impair regulation of the HPA axis, as several studies have now shown that mice with ablated adult neurogenesis have a heightened HPA axis response to acute stress (Schloesser et al, 2009; Snyder et al, 2011; Surget et al, 2011).”