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Simple shelter-style environmental enrichment alters behavior in mice

  • Research Article
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Translational Neuroscience

Abstract

Environmental enrichment aims to improve the well-being of laboratory animals and provides an opportunity to improve experimental reliability and validity. Animals raised in more stimulating environments have improved learning and memory as well as more complex brain architecture. However, the effects of environmental enrichment on motor performance, anxiety and emotional development have been poorly studied. Moreover, most investigators studying the effects of enrichment provide extremely large and complex housing conditions to maximize the likelihood of finding effects. These situations are difficult to replicate across animal facilities and are not operationally practical. In this experiment, we investigated how simple, inexpensive disposable shelterstyle enrichment items alter behavior in C57Bl/6 and 129S6 mice. Breeding pairs were established in the presence of a Ketchum “Refuge”, Shepherd Shack “Dome”, or no enrichment. Offspring were assessed neurobehaviorally, either just after weaning (pre-adolescent, P22–P25), or as young adults (P60–P90). Major strain differences were observed in open field activity, elevated maze exploration, and Y-maze activity levels. The presence of the Refuge and/or Dome enrichment shelters significantly altered motor activity, coordination and some measures of anxiety. Mice housed in the presence of shelters were also less dominant than control mice in a tube test assay. Our experiments provide a detailed analysis of the effects of inexpensive and practical methods of housing enrichment on biobehavioral phenotypes in these two commonly used strains of laboratory mice, and suggest that the effects of these shelters on mouse neurobiology and behavior need to be rigorously analyzed before being adopted within vivariums.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Animal Care, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

    Casey Coke-Murphy

  2. Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA

    Matthew A. Buendia, Tommy P. Saborido & Gregg D. Stanwood

  3. The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, Nashville, USA

    Gregg D. Stanwood

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  1. Casey Coke-Murphy
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  2. Matthew A. Buendia
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  3. Tommy P. Saborido
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  4. Gregg D. Stanwood
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Correspondence to Gregg D. Stanwood.

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Coke-Murphy, C., Buendia, M.A., Saborido, T.P. et al. Simple shelter-style environmental enrichment alters behavior in mice. Translat.Neurosci. 5, 185–196 (2014). https://doi.org/10.2478/s13380-014-0228-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s13380-014-0228-4

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